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

I move amendment No. 2:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following: agrees that:

- without high speed broadband, 1.1 million people, mostly living in rural Ireland, will not have access to high speed broadband, and will be left behind;

- without high speed broadband it will be significantly more difficult to attract new jobs to rural areas and develop new enterprise opportunities and it will be more difficult to retain the jobs that currently exist in these areas;

- you cannot sustain a healthy democracy if there are major groups of people who feel they are being left behind;

- without high speed broadband, it will be impossible for rural Ireland to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented by the digital economy, from healthcare to farming, and from education to agriculture, rural development and tourism; and

- without high speed broadband, remote working, which would allow people to have more flexible working arrangements, and to reduce their carbon footprint and urban sprawl by reducing the numbers commuting to large cities, will not be possible;

notes that:

- the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment is considering the recent report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and the Environment in relation to the National Broadband Plan (NBP) and will revert

to the Government shortly in relation to the recommendations in the Committee report;

- the advice of the Attorney General is that it is not legally possible to change the 2016 ownership decision within the current procurement process;

- cancelling the current procurement process, starting again and getting to the point at which contracts can be signed could take at a minimum three years and up to five years, with no guarantee of a successful outcome, in which case the roll-out of high

speed broadband may not commence until 2026 and may not be completed until 2032, which would only serve to deepen the digital divide that exists in this country;

- in appointing a preferred bidder, the Government considered a number of alternative options to delivering the NBP, including changing the ownership model, and that from that work, it was clear that the analysis showed that all of the alternative options

identified would take longer to reach 100 per cent of the Intervention Area premises compared to the current plan (or in some cases 100 per cent would never be achieved), and that:

- it may be more costly;

- in most cases would require a consultation on a new strategy as well as a new procurement process and State-aid application; and

- it may not provide the level of future proofing required under the European Commission’s strategy, Connectivity for a European Gigabit Society;

- the then Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, commenced a public consultation in July 2015 on the Intervention Strategy for the NBP, which included consideration of five alternative ownership options, and that the then

Minister in December 2015 recommended to the Government two possible ownership options, one of which was the gap-funded model, and then established an interdepartmental group to recommend the best way to proceed;

- an inter-departmental group reviewed the appropriate ownership model and based on this review the Department recommended the gap-funded model, and that it was then adopted by the Government in July 2016; and

- the State can receive 40 per cent of the value of the National Broadband Network at the end of the contract, without any of the risk associated with owning 146,000 kilometres of fibre wire that have been hanging on rented infrastructure for 25 or 35

years; and

calls on the Government to proceed to sign the National Broadband Plan Contract as soon as possible, as the 1.1 million people mostly living in rural Ireland have waited long enough to get connected to a service which is, or will be, freely available to virtually every person in towns and cities across Ireland.

The reason we are implementing this plan is that there are more than 1.1 million people who would be left behind if we did not make a decision to deliver broadband. They would include 100,000 businesses, 540,000 premises and nearly 25% of the population. The process in which we have engaged has been open. Any company, public or private, could have entered that process. They had equal opportunity to do so. The implication of the Labour Party's motion and Sinn Féin's amendment is that we scrap this process and start all over again. It has been made clear by the Attorney General that it is not open to the Government to pick the ESB, or any other public utility, and gift it with the opportunity to implement the plan. Starting again would mean having a new procurement process.

We face a choice. I see no scenario in which rural Ireland will prosper without access to high speed broadband. The motion and Sinn Féin's amendment state rural Ireland must wait another three to five years before it can have access to this technology. The reality, as Deputy Howlin admits, is that it is a transformative technology that will change the face of health delivery and education. The Deputies who are advocating that we start the process all over again are advocating for people who live in rural Ireland to be second-class citizens who must wait in line when the technology is moving so fast.

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