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

There is a good case to be made that it was a bad decision. The reality is that the State needs to provide, with State support, access to high speed broadband in the most cost effective way possible. We have to rent 1.5 million poles and 15,000 km of duct. We need a company to string fibre along that private network in order to reach those who would otherwise not be reached. That is the reality. The asset being developed by National Broadband Ireland is to deliver fibre to areas that would not have it otherwise and, naturally, the State has to substantially subsidise it. The technology for use in the exchanges in the metropolitan area network, MAN, must also be provided privately through National Broadband Ireland putting in its technology to light up the system. That is what National Broadband Ireland is delivering.

We must be honest. The Deputy is suggesting National Broadband Ireland can charge what it likes, but that is not the case. It is bound by a contract and a regulator. The contract we have put in place has checks and balances built in because National Broadband Ireland is privately owned. That is why we have very strong governance arrangements in place, with key performance indicators, stringent penalties and a claw-back of 40% of the value of the asset if it has value at the end of the process. Members who attended the hearings of the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment on this matter will know that ComReg presented the case that the 25 year old fibre and electronic equipment used by National Broadband Ireland would not have a high depreciation value. The only value will be in the business that will have been built. That is why ComReg was always of the view that there should not be an asset reverting to the State that had been run into the ground, as will be the case. What is needed is an asset that will be kept up to a standard because the company will have a continuing interest in delivering a service to rural Ireland and maintaining it to the highest quality, future proofing it, adding new technology and pushing it from the figure of 30 Mbps that we sought initially when Deputy Howlin and I were in government together and looking for this to 50 Mbps. We are offering and delivering a future-proofed approach with this initiative.

It is simply not true that there were cheaper alternatives. At every hand's turn, we looked at the alternatives the Deputies are now advocating. They were looked at after Eir exited the process. We looked at having a universal service obligation and utilities such as the ESB. We looked at all of the options and one would have had to scrap the process and start again. There would then have been another procurement process of three to five years in going down those routes.

There was no expectation that other options would deliver at a lower cost. The ESB was in the process but dropped out of it because it did not believe it would be as competitive in delivering with its network as could be delivered using the rented Eir network. It had every opportunity. People were not excluded. The Deputy is correct that the EU does not preclude a public utility from delivering broadband. Any utility can do so but this approach was taken.

I strongly recommend to the House that we continue with the process. We have gone through a competitive dialogue. We sought the best technology and we got it. We sought the best approach and are building the infrastructure on an existing network to keep down the cost. We have integrated it into the existing telecommunications network. Rural Ireland will grow with the technology and will have full access to a national technology, which is why this is a national programme. At every hand's turn, we re-evaluated the process, in accordance with public expenditure rules. None of the options for which Deputies now advocate was better but instead they had the added disadvantage that they would push the whole process back to the start.

That is the choice we have today. Either we decide we will provide national broadband and give rural Ireland access to this asset or we say there will be another report, another assessment and start from scratch all over again.

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