Broadband priority given to schools in the West

The Communications Minister has said that secondary schools in the West of the country will be the first to get industrial-speed broadband.

The Government announced a €40 million plan to roll out the new 100 megabyte per second system in every second level school before September 2014.

Pat Rabbitte says the service will be up and running in 200 locations by the start of the next school year, this coming September.

Minister Rabbitte - speaking at the Labour Party conference in Galway - says the broadband will be in place in 200 other secondary schools next year with the remaining 250 being connected in 2014:

"In respect of the latest canard about the labour party being anti-rural Ireland I can announce tonight that we have given priority to 13 counties in the west of Ireland where that work will be done before the beginning of the school year"