Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There are two phases in regard to the application for state aid. One is the prenotification process and the other is the formal notification process. We are currently in the prenotification process and I expect to get to the formal notification process by Quarter 4. We can do that in parallel with all the other work we are doing to move to the tender and the culmination of the procurement process in terms of finding a bidder or bidders. The importance of the prenotification process in regard to state aids is that we can do a huge amount of preparatory work to ensure that when the formal application is made, many of the questions that might arise from the Commission will have already been addressed or substantially addressed.

My Department is working closely on this. The state aids application is only one aspect of it because we have to work out, and it touches on the Deputy's question, issues to do with the likely governance arrangements in respect of the successful bidder. In terms of the ownership model we put in place, will the bidder own the network? The funding issues are very live and there is the question of funding and planning in respect of that. All the technical and regulatory questions are being dealt with in parallel by teams of advisers working to my national broadband plan team within the Department.

There is an enormous amount of work going on but by late summer we should be reaching the formal notification process for state aid application. There are different experiences of different countries but I hope that then could be expedited quickly.

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