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

I thank the Rural Alliance for tabling this motion. Delivering high speed broadband to every home, business and school in Ireland is a personal promise from me and my top priority as the responsible Minister. Like all Deputies, I have been frustrated with the lack of progress in this area for the past few years, and so too have hundreds of thousands of people throughout Ireland, including our constituents, the people who elected us to deliver. Yesterday was an important day, a milestone in a project which I believe, in its scale and significance, matches rural electrification. The process is finally moving and is on time.

The motion, tabled by the Rural Alliance, is timely. I promise the Deputies that every home and business in Ireland will have high speed broadband. The roll-out will start in every county in the first year of the programme, and the last homes and businesses will be connected within three to five years. No one will be left behind.

Turning now to the amendments put forward by Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, let me be clear that both procurement models will deliver the same service to consumers for the next 25 years. People in rural Ireland will not see any difference in terms of the type, timeliness and cost of services they receive. The Government will exercise the same control over the network for the full 25 years under both models. The network will, as Fianna FáiI asks, ensure the future needs of homes and businesses are met. The only tangible differences are in the cost to the taxpayer and the time it will take to get contracts in place.

On cost, the full concession model, which Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin want, would cost between 50% and 70% more than the gap funding model. The full cost of the project would be likely to go on the Government’s balance sheet, and the commercial sector input would also be regarded as Government debt. The impact of this on the general Government deficit would be approximately €1 billion more than the gap funding model. This would also reduce the available capital spend by up to €600 million over the next six years.

On timing, the full concession model would take at the very least six months more to negotiate with bidders, a delay the people in need of broadband cannot afford. Ten weeks ago, a delay of six months to the procurement process was announced. Are we really saying to the people that we want them to endure another six-month delay? We want to encourage investment in rural Ireland and that means avoiding delays that are within our control.

As both models will deliver the same thing, the benefit of State ownership is a notional benefit at the end of the contract. My questions to Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are these. What projects are they prepared to forgo to pursue a State-owned model? From which projects will they cut €600 million? Do we close long-stay homes for older people that are not up to the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, standards? Are they comfortable returning to their constituencies tomorrow to tell the families and business people of rural Ireland that they are proposing further preventable delays in delivering their vital broadband service? Can they really look them in the eye and tell them that in a world that is more connected than ever, they will continue to lose out? I certainly will not be going to the Connacht final this weekend to tell my constituents that they will have to wait at least six months longer because certain Deputies in this House want the State to own and control the network in 2043, that is, 27 years away. The Fianna Fáil spokesperson in the Seanad, Senator Terry Leyden, while expressing concerns earlier today said that he would not impede me and told me to get on with it.

People in rural Ireland are already frustrated and angry about the delay in delivering services to them. I am not prepared to put other urgent capital investment priorities in schools, local and regional roads, flood relief and primary care residential centres in jeopardy by opting for an ownership model that will give the same outcome at a significantly higher cost. The telecoms industry has invested strongly to deliver high speed broadband to approximately 1.2 million premises in towns and villages throughout Ireland, and this investment is ongoing. It is covering homes and businesses in towns such as Tipperary, Clonmel, Tralee, Cahersiveen, Killarney, Cooraclare, Barna, Inchydoney and Kilrush, to name only a few. Industry had previously promised to deliver to 1.6 million premises. The Department has been closely monitoring these developments.

Yesterday, I announced that the Department has identified up to 170,000 premises which had been expected to get services from the telecoms sector and which will not now get those services. We are working to identify these premises in order that we can include them in the State intervention programme. This will ensure no premises, no matter how isolated, will be left behind.

Effective regulation, such as a universal service obligation, can deal with many of the concerns that could arise in 2043. I am already considering what regulatory safeguards we could introduce to ensure quality services continue to be delivered over the coming years and after 2043 when the contract or contracts expire.

I was amazed this morning to hear Deputy Howlin extolling the virtues of public ownership. As a member of the previous Government he could have made a decision on ownership last December if he was so keen on the full concession model.

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