Dáil debates

Tuesday, 28 April 2015

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions

National Broadband Plan Implementation

5:55 pm

Photo of Michael MoynihanMichael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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4. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide the latest update on the Government’s application to the Commission for state aid approval of the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16437/15]

Photo of Michael MoynihanMichael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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My question asks the Minister for the latest update by the Government to the European Commission for state aid approval of the national broadband plan.

Photo of Alex WhiteAlex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The national broadband plan aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service.

In tandem with commercial developments, intensive work is under way in my Department to progress a State-led investment to secure the countrywide introduction of next-generation broadband access.

As the Deputy is aware, there was a public consultation and a national high speed coverage map was launched last November. The map can be accessed through a Department website that allows members of the public to see whether their premises or home will have access to commercial high speed broadband services by the end of 2016 or whether they will be included in the Government's proposed intervention. A public consultation on the map closed on 12 February and that exercise will help inform the key decisions that are now required to be taken in order to finalise our comprehensive intervention strategy, which will be published for consultation in July. The publication of the map and consultation is necessary to ensure that the State intervention does not compete with commercial high speed broadband services and is required under EU state aid guidelines. Formal notification will be made after consultation on the intervention strategy is completed later this year. In the meantime, the Department continues to liaise closely with the Directorate General for competition on a range of issues related to the strategy and we intend to be in a position later this year to submit a pre-notification to the directorate.

Intensive design and planning work is under way in my Department to produce a detailed intervention strategy. This will address a range of issues relating to the intervention, including the optimum procurement model, ownership model for the infrastructure, intervention cost and likely market impact. My Department has engaged external advisors to provide legal, economic, technical and financial advice on the various aspects of the plan over the next two years. The next steps will see a further public consultation on a detailed intervention strategy in mid 2015. In this regard, the Department will design a tender in a way that maximises efficiencies and keeps the cost to taxpayers as low as possible. It is expected that the physical build of this network will commence from 2016. It is a complex and ambitious project that is a key priority for Government and for me.

6:05 pm

Photo of Michael MoynihanMichael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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When will this be submitted to the European Commission? The Minister gave a date of June 2015 at one stage for state aid approval but where is that now? This looks like a never-ending saga. The broadband plan was announced this time last year, before local and European elections, to great fanfare. It was to resolve issues but, to my mind, nothing has yet happened. When will this formally be presented to the Commission? When will we see credible action on the ground?

Photo of Alex WhiteAlex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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With respect to the Deputy, if he read the monthly reports that I publish on the progress of the national broadband plan, which I undertook to do in this House last autumn, he would see a considerable amount of work ongoing with the national broadband plan. There is hardly a day in the Department when we do not have consultation or work proceeding on the plan. I would be very happy to brief the Deputy separately and privately if he so wishes, or publicly here on another occasion, on the enormous amount of work ongoing with the national broadband plan. I am not one for fanfare or repeated announcements but I am one for ensuring the work will progress. I assure the Members that work is progressing.

The guiding principle for the state aid process is that any state intervention should limit, as much as possible, the risk of crowding out or replacing private investment, or altering commercial investment incentives and ultimately distorting competition. That is viewed as contrary to the common interest of the European Union.

Photo of Michael MoynihanMichael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I have followed the issue. When will this come before the European Commission? I know why it must go before the European Commission and that work is ongoing. In my previous comments I asked when it would come before the European Commission. Why was it not put in the April 2014 announcement that this would have to go before the European Commission? This is probably one of the most fundamental issues facing Irish society. Are we going to crowd people into cities and towns while leaving significant parts of the country underpopulated because of a lack of services like broadband, as I have said on numerous occasions? May I have a straight answer on when this will come before the European Commission for considerations with respect to state aid approval? When will the application be submitted?

Photo of Alex WhiteAlex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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State aid notification is a two-stage process. There is pre-notification and formal notification. Currently we are in the pre-notification stage. We have external advisers testing the proposed strategy against the principles of state aid guidelines to ensure compliance. The first draft of this compliance report is due at the end of this month and, thereafter, ministerial approval will be required for a pre-notification submission. Once received, the pre-notification will be sent to the European Commission, which will assess the pre-notification and potentially seek clarification from us. To try to answer the Deputy's question as best I can, we are pressing the issue, and it is envisaged that the formal notification - the second stage of the proposed intervention - will be sent to the Commission in the fourth quarter of this year. I assure the Deputy that all the work we are doing now in the pre-notification stage will ensure that when we get into the formal notification, enormous amounts of contact will have taken place with the Commission and the directorate. We hope that most of the questions that the Commission would want to ask us would already have been addressed in the pre-notification stage. We are working very hard, carefully and diligently on the issue.