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

The aim of the national broadband plan is to deliver high-speed broadband to every single premises in the State on a commercial and non-commercial basis. Because of the work being done on the national broadband plan we have now ensured that commercial companies, on a commercial basis, are spending €1.7 million every single day and they have been spending that for the last four years. The only reason that Eir sought a commitment agreement with me was because of the national broadband plan and because of the intervention area within the plan. We have been able to tie Eir down to specific targets. They were to have passed 40,000 homes by 31 March last but they have passed 41,000 homes. Deputy Dooley knows, more than anyone in this House, that Eir has previously given very hollow commitments to communities up and down this country and that Eir has actually failed to deliver on them. Now Eir is tied in to a contract where it will be penalised if it does not deliver on it.

The national broadband plan will entail a 25 year contract. We do not want a situation like we had in the past with the Three contract; by the time the contract was signed and rolled out the technology was obsolete. That will not happen in this case. This is a very complex set of negotiations. The contract documents run to 1,000 pages in total and the supplementary documentation is a further 1,000 pages. I am committed to ensuring that we actually deliver to every single home in the country and I am not going to get tied up in dates. Some 12 months ago 52% of premises in the State had access to high-speed broadband. On foot of the commitment agreement and the work we have done over the last 12 months, within the next 85 weeks 77% of premises will have access to high-speed broadband. That is one in four premises in Ireland, the vast majority in rural areas, which will have access to high-speed broadband and the majority of those will be getting up to 1,000 Mbps.

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