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

I will go through the Estimate questions first before dealing with some of the broader questions. I will begin with the spending and changes in the figures from 2017 to 2018 under the various subheads. On information and communications technology, between 2017 and 2018 the Estimate has gone from €20.5 million to €19 million. That is because of anticipated contractual payments under the concession agreement for phase 2 of the metropolitan area networks which are projected to be less than was budgeted for in the 2017 allocation. The outturn for 2017 is €1.45 million less and that is reflected in the change in the subhead.

Some €15 million is allocated to complete the procurement process in the national broadband plan. The process commenced 27 months ago and we have gone through the process and the complexities involved. As I have said before, is not a simple auction. At the start of the process we did not have the technical solution, so that as part of the whole procurement process, one is bidding for the technical solution. The three bidders who had progressed forward had recommended a primarily fibre-based solution for this. David McCourt put it well in one interview when he explained what a competitive dialogue procurement process is. At the start one has 200 issues to deal with, and now we are down to the last handful. Once they are agreed, one signs off on the matter and moves on. We are now at the very end of the process. As I told the committee here some weeks ago, we will have a preferred bidder stage by September. I think we can expedite this and we will get contractors on the ground delivering high-speed broadband quicker than we had envisaged. The build out is expected to be three years and we are making significant progress.

The Chairman asked for a breakdown of subhead 3A. The substantial part of that relates to the national broadband plan. There is €140,000 for the metropolitan area network, MAN, phase 2. The management services entity, MSE, process management, which relates to the MAN ducting, has a fee of €80,000. The MSE 2 concession agreement is €1.4 million. The Galway-Mayo ducting is about to come to committee -----