Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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44. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the process he will use to appoint members to the selection committee for the tendering process of the national broadband plan. [38597/16]

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister outline the methodology he will use to appoint members to the selection committee for the tendering process of the national broadband plan? Will he advise the House of such?

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The national broadband plan represents a significant capital investment project for the State and aims to deliver high speed services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for Partnership Government commits to the delivery of the national broadband plan as a matter of priority. The Government’s intervention strategy is available on my Department's websiteand sets out detailed service specifications, including a requirement that the State-funded network must be capable of delivering high quality, high speed broadband.

My Department is now in a formal procurement process to select a company or companies which will roll out the new high speed broadband network to more than 750,000 premises in Ireland, covering 100,000 km of road network and 96% of the land mass of Ireland. Intensive dialogue with bidders is continuing, and the three remaining bidders have indicated they propose a predominantly fibre to the home solution.

The procurement process is now well under way, with in excess of 250 hours of dialogue completed with the three bidders and more than 2,000 pages of contract documentation exchanged. This process aims to tease out all of the detailed proposals with a view to ensuring that the final contract or contracts are fit for purpose and fully deliver on the Government's high level objective of a truly open access, wholesale network that delivers quality affordable services to all premises in the intervention area, regardless of how remote these premises are and meets their needs for in excess of 25 years.

After the initial dialogue is concluded, the bidders will be asked to submit draft proposals for consideration and further dialogue. When this process is complete a formal tender will issue.

I assure the Deputy that the procurement process is being intensively managed by my Department to ensure an outcome that delivers a future-proofed network that serves homes and businesses across Ireland for at least 25 years. My Department's national broadband plan team is supported by external consultants providing additional support in the area of procurement, as well as legal, financial and technical expertise. It would not be appropriate for me to comment further publicly on the evaluation process at this time.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Maybe the Minister did not fully understand what I was asking him. It is not about anything other than ensuring an independent process that has no potential, in the future, to be tainted or to be something about which questions could be raised. I am asking him to provide the House with the strategy to ensure that the outcome of the process will not be open to question by any of the unsuccessful bidders. He will know that this was a feature of various State contracts in the past, though I will not get into specifics on them. Is it his intention to put an evaluation board together with international expertise? How might he compile such a board to review the tenders?

The Minister has given me a clear picture of what the national broadband strategy hopes to achieve and I welcome that. He has also told me about the discussions that have taken place but at some point a group of people will have to make a decision to pick one or two of the three consortia. Therein lies the potential for problems and the House needs to know how the Minister intends to ensure that the panel is above and beyond reproach and not open to question from any particular party.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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They have already taken decisions. There were originally six consortia and now there are three. They are completely at arm's length from the Department and we are sensitive to the issues. We are conscious of the potential for legal challenge and we are particularly sensitive to the issue based on the experience of previous procurement processes.

I do not think I have, as of yet, publicly declared the three companies and there was a delay because of the sensitivities involved. At every stage of this process all the implications are fully considered before any public comments are made. I am happy to facilitate the Deputy if he wants to talk to the assistant secretary heading this process so that it can be outlined to him. We are trying to be as careful as possible to ensure that it is not just transparent but whiter than white. We are in regular contact with the European Commission on the matter as well.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I may take the Minister up on that offer in due course. It is important, from the point of view of public perception, to ensure transparency at the earliest possible opportunity. I understand the necessity to retain certain information on account of commercial sensitivity but that is not necessary in setting out the process and giving information about what kind of expertise will be appointed. I am not suggesting that the Minister or his Department would do anything other than what is appropriate but if some of the mystery is taken out of the process in the early stages it prevents a head of steam being built up. We do not want a Fatima-style approach in which there is a sense of mystery where there is none. In most other countries the people and the processes are set out very clearly.

I accept that there is a potential for legal challenges but the public must be able to have confidence and I ask the Minister to reconsider. If I get the opportunity to meet the assistant secretary I will make those points without expecting him or her to provide any proprietary information. It is about ensuring that the process is not just above and beyond reproach but is seen to be. Doing this may be of benefit in any further legal challenge.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I take the Deputy's point and accept the genuine concerns he has on the issue. Since I became Minister I have been threatened twice, if not three times, with legal action in regard to the national broadband plan so I will be extremely careful about what I put on the public record. I am happy to facilitate the meeting for the Deputy as there is absolutely nothing to hide. I am completely aloof as to that aspect of the process and that is deliberate, with a view to ensuring that there cannot be any accusation of influence. I advise the Deputy to talk directly to the people involved who will be able to advise him as to why I have not given the detail he requested.