Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last week, as the Minister is aware, Eir announced plans to roll out fibre broadband to approximately 80,000 homes in the intervention area of the national broadband plan. Imagine announced plans for 400,000 premises earmarked for the intervention area as well. These announcements are welcome for those who will finally have the potential to receive high-speed broadband. These people have been across the digital divide for some time.

For 140,000 households not included in last week's announcements the national broadband plan remains the only show in town. The announcements have several potential knock-on effects and the Minister needs to clarify the situation. What is the position for the households not included in last week's announcement? The first question arises around the size of the intervention area. The rules of the national broadband plan were clear, as I understood them anyway. The plan cannot cover areas where a commercial operator is already in place or has already identified an area as being commercially feasible. Can the Minister confirm that the size of the intervention area has been reduced as a result of last week's announcements?

The second question is around a timeline for the national broadband plan. We understand that the final tender has been with the Department since September. In November, the Minister indicated that he would bring his recommendation before the Cabinet within weeks. Since then we have not heard much detail other than that it will happen within weeks. Perhaps the Minister can give us some clarity on that point.

Have these announcements in the past week or week and a half delayed decisions being brought forward by the Minister and his Department? Had the Minister any foreknowledge or forewarning that these announcements were imminent? Did he know that the companies concerned were working on plans to roll out high-speed broadband to those areas?

The final issue is around cost. We know the Secretary General of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment accepted at the Committee of Public Accounts that it was reasonable to conclude that the removal of the 300,000 homes from the intervention area in March 2017 made the national broadband plan less attractive to bidders. Does the same logic apply here? Can we assume that the decisions of Eir and Imagine to effectively offer a service to potentially in excess of 400,000 homes will impact significantly on the attractiveness of the national broadband plan? I would have thought it was reasonable to assume that the final price and roll-out will be influenced by the size of the intervention area. It is reasonable to assume that the NBP cannot be rolled out in areas where a commercial operator is in place. We know the issues around state aid rules. Prior to the development of the intervention area map there was a good deal of toing and froing between the Department and the European Commission.

It is reasonable to assume the NBP cannot be rolled out in areas where a commercial operator is already in place or has already proposed to roll out a service on a commercial basis. If the intervention area shrinks by up to 400,000 overnight, what will happen to the cost to the State? Has the cost per household of the roll-out increased or decreased as a result of the announcements last week? It was reported previously, in rather informed leaks to The Irish Timestowards the end of last year, that the cost of the national broadband plan to the State was a multiple of what was originally envisaged and outlined in the national development plan. The figures quoted then seemed to suggest that it had increased by between four and six times what had been originally envisaged. Can the Minister provide us with some clarity? How much is Granahan McCourt potentially going to get paid in that case?

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