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

The national broadband plan aims to ensure that every home, school and business in Ireland has access to high-speed broadband. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment across the country and a State intervention in those areas where commercial operators acting alone are unlikely to invest. The national broadband plan has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector. In 2012, fewer than 700,000, or 30% of Irish premises had access to high-speed broadband. Today, 74% of the 2.4 million premises in Ireland can access high-speed broadband.

I recently brought a recommendation to the Government to confer preferred bidder status on Granahan McCourt, the remaining bidder in the national broadband plan procurement process, and the Government agreed to this at its meeting on 7 May.

The Government decision means that it is intended to award the State intervention contract to National Broadband Ireland, subject to contract close, including the finalisation of financial and legal documents. A period of final due diligence on all elements of the contract is part of the normal conclusion of a procurement process.

National Broadband Ireland will be supported by a number of experienced subcontractors and is currently tasked with finalising negotiations on contracts with subcontractors to assist in the delivery of the national broadband plan. It is anticipated that a subset of these subcontracts will be required prior to contract close to support deployment. The state aid notification relating to the national broadband plan will also be submitted to the European Commission.

It is anticipated that these elements will require a number of months, with contract close expected later this year and deployment commencing shortly after that. That was an update on the status of the plan, which was what was sought in the original question.

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