Minister Canney welcomes €1.5m in EU funding for public Wifi

Ireland has now secured 100 vouchers under WiFi4EU initiative

Mr Seán Canney TD,

, today welcomed the results of the third call for applications under the EU’s WiFi4EU initiative.

The initiative provides funding to Local Authorities to establish free Wi-Fi in public areas such as town squares, libraries and parks. Successful applicants are issued with vouchers worth €15,000 to install Wi-Fi hotspots. The hotspots must be free of charge to the user and free from advertising.

Speaking about the results, Minister Canney said :

“The European Commission has confirmed that Ireland has secured an additional 16 vouchers worth €240,000 under the latest call for applications under the WiFi4EU initiative. Combined with previous calls, Irish Local Authorities have now been awarded 100 vouchers worth €1.5 million in total. This is very, very good news and illustrates once again the dedication of our Local Authorities, particularly through their Broadband Officers, to improving connectivity across the country.”

Minister Canney added :

“28 of Ireland’s 31 Local Authorities have now secured WiFi4EU vouchers. Twenty-three have secured the maximum of four vouchers available to any Irish Local Authority. These are impressive statistics that show how serious our Local Authorities are about providing much-needed services to the public.

To ensure that we all get the most from this initiative, the Department of Rural and Community Development, has committed to provide matched funding of €15,000 for every voucher awarded to Ireland by the EU, effectively doubling the value of the investment.”

Details of the awards made to Irish Local Authorities under the latest round of the WiFi4EU initiative are as follow:

Local Authority	Number of vouchers secured
Clare	2	(€30,000)
Cork City	1	(€15,000)
Cork County	4	(€60,000)
Kilkenny	1	(€15,000)
Laois	4	(€60,000)
Monaghan	2	(€30,000)
Offaly	2	(€30,000)
Total	16	(€240,000)

ENDS

Note to Editors

The WIFI4EU initiative

The WiFi4EU initiative promotes free access to Wi-Fi connectivity for citizens in public spaces including parks, squares, public buildings, libraries, health centres and museums in municipalities throughout Europe.
The initiative provides municipalities with the opportunity to competitively apply for up to 4 vouchers to the value €15,000 each. The vouchers are to be used to install Wi-Fi equipment in public spaces within the municipality that are not already equipped with a free Wi-Fi hotspot.
Each successful Local Authority now has 18 months to select locations for the WiFi4EU hotspots and complete their installation to be ready for public use. These locations need to be ‘centres of public life’ where no other free Wi-Fi service is already available. The service will be free of charge, free of advertising and free from commercial re-use of data.
The voucher may serve to purchase new equipment or upgrade old material and replace it with the most recent and best available equipment on the market.
Ireland was awarded 62 vouchers in 2018, amounting to €930,000, and 22 vouchers in May of this year, worth €330,000. With the additional vouchers from the third call, €1.5m has been awarded to Irish Local Authorities through the Wifi4EU initiative so far.
The maximum that any Irish Local Authority can apply for is four vouchers, totalling €60,000. Twenty-three of Ireland’s thirty-one Local Authorities have reached this maximum.
The fourth and final call for applications will open in 2020 when Ireland can apply for a further 24 vouchers, possibly adding another €360,000 to the successful draw-down from the EU.

Minister Canney welcomes €1.5m in EU funding for public Wifi