Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Catherine Murphy for raising this matter. This is an important debate on a hugely important project and the Deputy recognises that. It is worth recalling that the programme for Government sets out that one of the biggest challenges facing rural Ireland is to bridge the digital divide with urban areas and remedy the situation for at least the next 25 years. This is the ambition. We need to have next-generation broadband for every household and business. This is the purpose of the national broadband plan. It is a very ambitious plan because it involves reaching 100% of houses and premises in the intervention area. A high-level broadband speed was specified, with a minimum of 30 Mbps. A high standard was expected to be set and the objective required was that the charges would be the same as those applying in urban areas. It is designed to achieve exactly what the Deputy said, which is that access to a network would be available to people in the intervention area on the same basis as it would be available to anyone else. The other feature is that this is to be delivered over a 25-year period. When we approach capital projects, we normally ask how much it will cost to lay it down and people will tell us the investment will be a certain amount. This is an entirely uncommercial area. Everything commercial was carved out and what is to be delivered here is not just to create the infrastructure but to operate it over a long period of 25 years, future-proof it and maintain it as take-up develops over the period.

What we have sought to achieve is ambitious but rural Ireland will remain marginalised if it cannot participate in the cloud-based services we will have, is not able to participate in remote services that will undoubtedly deliver, and is not able to be part of the Internet of things, which is rapidly changing the way in which people consume information and control their lives. The ambition is absolutely right and Deputy Catherine Murphy has recognised this.

The choice of competitive dialogue was also important. Deputy Catherine Murphy rightly recognises that the State came to this not with a ready-made solution designed in Adelaide Road. This was about getting the best thinking available come up with ideas to solve it. As the Deputy knows, five people did come through. Many of them made bids but, as she correctly stated, two of the bids were withdrawn and only one remains.

The Deputy is correct to state we would have preferred if more than one bidder continued through to the end of the process but because there was only one bidder, we have had to take a lot more due diligence and care about overseeing what has been submitted. The Deputy and others are critical that we are not making a quicker decision but the very fact we have had to approach this in a far more rigorous way, assessing not just the technology being put forward but also the cost at a granular level, going right down into the cost structure to understand what is being bid for, and contesting the bid on an extremely close basis. This has been required by the fact there is only one bidder.

It is also important to remember part of the rules of the competitive dialogue was the State could only support through the competitive dialogue connections deemed not to be commercial. Originally, there was a much bigger intervention area with many more premises but Eir indicated that it believed it could roll them out commercially. It irritates some people to hear that the national broadband process resulted in the commercial sector stepping up to the plate and recognising that if it wanted to supply commercially, it had to make its move and it did so. Of the 300,000 premises, 66% are delivered and they are continuing. The fact of the process has stimulated the private sector and we now have close to 75% with high-speed broadband.

The Deputy was critical of the approach of Mr. Peter Smyth but I am of the view that he approached this with great rigour and he was the right person to do it. He understood the process from the very start.

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