Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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104. 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, since the last online departmental update was published on the issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22974/15]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Minister to provide the latest update on the Government’s application to the European Commission for State aid approval of the national broadband plan since the last online departmental update was published on the issue.

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The national broadband plan aims to ensure 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 country-wide introduction of next generation broadband access.

On 24 November last, a public consultation process on a national high speed coverage map, 2016 was launched. The map can be accessed at . It allows all members of the public to see whether their premises or home will have access to commercial high speed broadband services by end 2016 or whether they will be included in the Government's proposed intervention. The coverage map was produced following an intensive engagement between my Department and the industry.

The intervention area includes over 700,000 premises. Eircom recently announced an investment that may address a further 300,000 with fibre-to-the-premises technology. My Department will be rigorously examining the assurances from eircom concerning these new plans, which is a requirement for all operators, and will review how this impacts on the proposed intervention area, the so-called amber area..

The publication of the coverage map and consultation are necessary to ensure the State intervention does not compete with commercial high speed broadband services as required under EU State aid guidelines. The publication of the aforementioned map was required under the same 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 EU Directorate General for Competition on a range of issues related to the strategy and we are on target to submit pre-notification to the directorate over the summer period.

Intensive design and planning work is under way in my Department to produce a detailed intervention strategy for the amber area. Following a public consultation process on the draft intervention strategy this summer, I hope to move to the formal procurement phase towards the end of the year in order to select a preferred bidder or bidders. I expect the physical build of the network to begin in late 2016 and it will take between three and five years to fully complete, depending on the details of the bid or bids selected.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister made reference to eircom which he said "may" reach a further 300,000 premises. The issue with regard to the areas not covered by broadband is that officialdom is constantly using terms such as "may" and "might". There is enormous frustration, but I do not propose to discuss that issue in the Chamber today because I have been talking about it ad nauseamfor quite some time.

The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources website states:

The Department has continued its regular engagement with the European Commission throughout May. Further meetings are planned for June, following which, the formal State Aid Pre-Notification is expected to be submitted to DG Competition.

Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy can come back in.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The statement on the Department's website gives no indication of the urgency needed on the issue.

Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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While I may be wrong, my information from answers to parliamentary questions this time last year was that by mid-2015 everything would be signed, sealed and delivered and would be before the Commission.

Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy can come back in.

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Any of the timeline indications I have given to the House have so far been maintained. The Deputy is right in saying that the big hard stops will be the procurement process late in the year, in November and December. The next stage is to bring the intervention strategy to Cabinet, I hope in July, the pre-notification process to DG Competition and then to get on to the procurement application by the end of the year. That is what I said when I came into this office and I am still confident I can achieve that.

People's frustrations are understandable and legitimate, particularly when they can see the services others have near them, perhaps in the next town, and they compare what they could have with what they have. There is an element of me having to say that we ask people to keep faith with this process. It is a very big operation to have an intervention to cover a huge proportion of the land mass of the State in order to deliver high-speed broadband. We can and will do it, but it will take time to do it properly. Hardly a day passes without me having some engagement with senior colleagues in the Department to ensure the process is driving on, and driving on it is.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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As somebody said to me at a recent meeting on this, if we had the European Commission and all these procurement rules and regulations back in the 1940s and 1950s, it might have taken a generation to bring electricity to the people. That is the frustration for individuals and businesses.

The Minister mentioned November and December, which is a nine-week period. Is it set in stone that the procurement will be advanced during that period? We are still talking about 2016, 2017 or 2018 probably before these areas are connected to what is essentially a quality of life issue at this point. At various meetings I have outlined what the Minister has told me on the floor of the Dáil. People are asking what we can do to move this on because it is a case of live horse and get grass. Why can we not get the Commission to look at the frustrations? In addition to the broadband issue, there is also the mobile telephone service.

Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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It was originally mid-2015 and is now November-December. Is that timeline set in stone? Is there any commitment on how long that phase will take?

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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That is my intention. I can say in good faith to the Deputy that nothing has changed since the last time we had this engagement in the House that would make me believe there would be any issue with November-December. In other words, what I know now, I knew the last time we had this conversation here. We are on course to get to procurement by the end of the year, November-December, as I indicated some months ago.

I recently looked at some state-aid notifications and they may be of some interest to the Deputy. For example, a Danish state-aid application in June 2012 took five months to approve. An Italian one in June 2012 took six months. A British one in the same month took ten months.

A French one in July 2010 took 15 months. Another Danish one in February 2010 took five months. A Polish one in July 2011 took four months and a German one in July 2011 also took four months. My hope is that the Irish application will be processed within a few months. One never knows when submitting an application to the Commission exactly when one is likely to get a response. If the work is done in advance, including the prenotification process by way of attendance at the early meetings to pre-notify of what can be expected, which is what we propose to do over the next couple of months, it makes it much easier to get the final application through quickly.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Has the issue been raised at the Council of Ministers meeting?

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Is the Deputy referring to this particular project?

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Yes.

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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No, it would not.