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

He consented to the privatisation of almost 300 Coillte telecommunications masts last year, which would have an impact on mobile phone coverage throughout the country. The Deputy knows well that the Government has to make tough decisions to strike to balance between what is necessary and desirable.

Fianna Fáil has also tabled an amendment on the speed of the network. The speeds we have set out in the procurement process are minimum speeds and not “up to” speeds. I will in the coming days lay a statutory instrument before the House which will transpose key aspects of the European cost of broadband directive. It will deal with infrastructure sharing by utility network operators and timelines for processing permissions to install telecoms infrastructure along public roads in line with the Fianna Fáil amendment. I intend to follow this with measures to ensure all new-build premises have ducting installed for the purposes of installing telecom lines. This will add to existing legislation in this area since 2002.

I believe there is unanimous support in this House for the speedy and efficient delivery of the national broadband plan. I would like to put firmly on the record of the House, the progress that has been made. The procurement process commenced in December and yesterday we moved to stage 3 with three qualifying bidders. The Department continues to monitor deployment by the telecoms industry and I am now moving to include another 170,000 premises in the intervention area.

The gap funding ownership model will deliver the same network and services that would be delivered under a full concession model for consumers over the next 25 years. I cannot stand over a full concession model which would have an additional impact of more than €1 billion on the general Government deficit, reducing the capital spend by more than €600 million and delay the roll-out of services for at least another six months. I thank the Rural Alliance for tabling this important motion.

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