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

There are three questions I cannot answer. They relate to the value for money question the Chairman asked and the questions from Deputy Lowry and Senator O'Reilly on the pricing structure and so on.

On the question as to whether enet will withdraw from the process, I have spoken with one of the key investors in this, David McCourt, who I believe is from Deputy Dooley's part of the country. He is the chair of enet. He is also the chief executive of Granahan McCourt, which is a major capital investor in this area. Both SSE and enet believe that, for them, this particular project is very much a role model project so they can secure similar types of project across Europe and the globe. As members know, the Scottish Government has announced it will replicate what we are doing here in terms of bringing high-speed broadband to the islands and highlands. The state of New York is looking at doing something similar to what we are doing here.

The German programme for government, agreed yesterday, is also looking at bringing high-speed broadband to rural communities. The company feels it has an opportunity there as well. It is committed not just to bringing in high-speed broadband but to use it as a test bed to deliver high-speed broadband to other parts of the world.

I was in Limerick yesterday where we opened a new facility for a company called 4site, which has increased the number of people it employs by 20. It has been working with SIRO for the past number of years on its fibre build-out. It has developed a map of the infrastructure build-out for fibre networks in the towns around Ireland. It has secured a major contract in the UK and is in negotiations to secure other contracts in the United States. 4site has done this and enet-SSC intends to do it on a bigger scale. The decision of Eir to pull out - regardless of whether it was associated with the build of 300,000 - is a commercial decision for the company. Eir is the only body that can comment in that regard. There has been speculation but I have given members the letter I received from the company, as well as my response.

Senator O'Reilly asked if people will get broadband. Yes, they will. Every single home, farm and business will get access to high-speed broadband. There is unanimity across the House, as well as in this committee, on the need to do this regardless of who is in Government. The question is when people will get broadband. When this Government was formed, five out of ten premises in Ireland had access to high-speed broadband. Today, it is seven out of ten and by the end of the year it will be eight out of ten. By 2020 it will be at least nine out of ten and it may be higher. Soon after that, I expect we will complete the work.

Based on the Eir build we are expecting a build-out of 40,000 premises in this quarter. I expect that the consortium, once it has got up and running and addressed some of the teething difficulties, will get up to a similar momentum quite quickly, taking approximately three years. In Cavan, Monaghan, Roscommon and Clare there are some very isolated locations that may take a bit longer to deliver but we expect the vast bulk of the country to be covered in the three-year build-out.

I was asked how we maintained the social mandate to get broadband to rural areas quickly. This is about bringing high-speed broadband to 542,000 homes, the last homes to get it and the most isolated homes in Ireland. There is a State subsidy to make sure it happens. The build-out will be defined in two ways. One way is based on the commercial plan of the company itself, which has stated that it is easier to build from a location outwards. The Department of Rural and Community Development is also engaging with local authorities across the country and with regional action groups. I am determined that this will happen in every county together. Roscommon will not be first, just because it has the highest percentage of people who need the service, and Monaghan will not be second just because it is second on the list. Every county will start together, as has happened with the Eir deployment.