Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We raised this issue last June when we appeared before the committee. The subhead in the Estimate for the Department includes the allocation of €7.5 million for next generation broadband services. By the end of June €2.547 million had been spent under the subhead. The total Estimate allocation for the year is €16.7 million. Approximately €900,000 was spent directly on the national broadband plan. There has been no impact on the roll-out of the plan. There is a commitment in A Programme for a Partnership Government to make next generation broadband available to every home and business throughout the country by 2020. It has since transpired that 100% of addresses will not have access to high speed broadband until 2022, even though the overall target of the national broadband plan is to ensure 100% accessibility to next generation broadband by 2020. The Chairman asked if the underspend had had an impact on the roll-out of the plan. No, it has not. The expenditure profile will vary from year to year because we are engaged in the procurement process and most of the money allocated last year and this year was for buying in additional expertise, as and when required. At different stages of the procurement process we will require additional expertise to be bought in.

The fact that there is a differential with regard to the spending profile against the amount set out at the start of the year does not impact on the progression of this project. It depends on when we require the expertise at different phases during the project. As a result of the fact that there was an underspend in the first half of the year, we indicated early in the Estimates meeting on 29 June that we were reallocating some of that and we outlined how this was being done.