Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Many people are opposed to private investment in communications but it has delivered 75% coverage already at no cost to the taxpayer. Now is the point when the Government needs to intervene to ensure that the next 25%, 540,000 homes, farms and businesses across Ireland, over 1 million people, are connected to high-speed broadband.

I am happy to confirm and clarify one or two things that were said in the last couple of days. I can confirm that in 2014 the memorandum brought to Cabinet by the Minister at the time, Pat Rabbitte, estimated that the cost of bringing high-speed broadband to 1,100 villages in Ireland would be up to €512 million. That was never the cost for connecting every home, farm and business in the country.

The State subvention was never capped at €500 million. That is not correct either.

In terms of bids, the only bid received is not only from Granahan McCourt. Before others withdrew, they also put in bids and the figures were similar in those bids.

In terms of the ownership model which the Deputy asked about, under the proposed contract terms, the contract is to build the network, to operate the network, to maintain the network and to manage the network for 25 years, at which point ownership stays with the consortium. However, at that point, Government has the option to buy. As this is not a commercial piece of infrastructure, one would expect that to be a relatively inexpensive proposition. At any point, if the contractor fails to deliver, the Government can step in and take over. Those have been the terms of the proposition since very early on.

Obviously, some more work needs to be done. This matter is being analysed by Government, by my own Department, by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and, of course, by the Department of Communications, Energy and Climate Action, which is the lead Department on this issue.

The next step will be for the Government to make a decision on whether to accept the bid and designate a preferred bidder. That has not yet been done. I anticipate that can be done in the next couple of weeks. It will then take a number of months for contracts to be drawn up and signed. After that, the work will commence in terms of roll-out on the ground.

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