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

As I have stated many times recently, it is my personal commitment and a key priority for Government to have high-speed broadband delivered to every house, business, farm and school in Ireland, and a future-proofed broadband service.  I have long advocated for this service for rural Ireland and I am determined that high-speed broadband will be delivered to every single premises in the country and that it will meet that timescale in the next 25 years of providing a quality service.  I know there is nothing between myself and the Deputies in this House on the policy or the objectives, and that we all want to deliver to the communities and businesses in the intervention area.

The procurement process to engage a company to roll out the broadband network remains at an advanced stage.  The remaining bidder, SSE-Enet, has already identified its final issues for discussion with the procurement team and these discussions are ongoing.  I am confident all parties will work to ensure the solutions will deliver a network fit for today's needs and with a capacity to adapt to new technologies over the next 25 years.

In all procurement processes, particularly where there are services to be rolled out over a prolonged period, all viable options for delivery are considered. The current procurement process is a robust process with strong risk management throughout and a broad range of scenarios and eventualities having been considered.  This process is entering its final stages, with SSE-Enet having reaffirmed its commitment to the successful conclusion of the process.

I consider that it would be imprudent to pre-empt the outcome of the ongoing engagement by publicly deliberating on other options for alternative delivery strategies at this time as this could potentially prejudice the outcome of the procurement process.

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