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

Regarding the procurement process, a particular approach has been taken. The decision was taken long before my time as Minister and it is a very complex procurement process, but it is a 25-year contract, and people need to be aware of that. It is not just for this decade, but also for the decades to come. A minimum of 5,200 premises in County Laois will get high-speed broadband under the Eir build-out. At present, Eir is looking at some anomalies to see whether it can provide broadband to local community centres and schools that may not have been included in the 300,000 build-out. Laois County Council and all the other local authorities in the midlands have fed back into that process. We are working with both wireless and mobile operators to exploit the fibre that has been built out and that is being built out across the country to provide people with a broadband solution in the short term. I know one company to which we have allocated broadband spectrum that expects to cover 85% of the country with broadband wireless services by 2019. We are also looking at providing hot desks in those towns and villages that I named in order that the woman the Deputy spoke about, along with her three employees, will be able to work from a local community building or local enterprise centre, rather than having to commute to Dublin. We are also working with the local authorities to identify mobile phone and mobile data black spots to see how we can resolve them and put the infrastructure in place in the short term.

Regarding the Deputy's question about Eir and the build-out, because Eir is an incumbent, that allows for the build-out to continue beyond the Eir network. This is all part of the complex procurement process we have been going through over this period. It will come to a completion this year and we will continue the momentum that we have seen to date in the delivery of high-speed broadband to 300 farms a week. That momentum will continue until every single farm, home and premises in Ireland has access to high-speed broadband.

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