Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Seanad Éireann for the invitation to address the House on the national broadband plan, NBP. I am sure this House strongly supports the overarching objective of the NBP to provide this basic necessity to every premises in Ireland. It is a vital utility that is fundamental to sectors, including business, education and agriculture, and a key element for social and economic development.

Senators will no doubt be aware of the recent Dáil debates and media coverage on the NBP arising from Eir's decision to withdraw from the procurement process. They will have received copies of all the relevant correspondence and comprehensive briefing documents. I would like to reaffirm today that the NBP remains a top priority of Government and a personal commitment from me to put every placename in every county on the digital map. The NBP procurement team and I are confident that the process can continue and will achieve an outcome that will deliver high-speed broadband throughout Ireland as efficiently as possible.

While at this point the NBP procurement team has a single bidder following the withdrawal of two bidders for commercial reasons, the remaining consortium led by SSE-Enet is an experienced consortium with international expertise. It has already identified its final issues for discussion with the Department's team and this list was submitted some weeks ago while competition remained in the process.

A narrative that has emerged is that the procurement process is overly-onerous and complex. Of course, this is an onerous and complex process as we will be spending hundreds of millions of euro of taxpayers' money to deliver a future-proofed, high-speed broadband network throughout the country.

The competitive dialogue procurement procedure which we are using is common practice internationally for projects of this nature and complexity. It enables, not inhibits, greater participation throughout the process. The procurement process opens up a dialogue with selected candidates in order to identify and define the means best suited to deliver a national broadband plan. It is important to point out that a bidder cannot go backwards on matters.The competitive dialogue procedure was also used for the procurement of the next generation broadband project in Northern Ireland and the BDUK superfast broadband project in Oxfordshire, and is used for public private partnerships in Ireland.

I understand the frustration of people who are watching the procurement process and waiting for it to conclude but who, in the meantime, are left without access to high-speed broadband, and I thank them for their patience. I can assure Members that I will not let this procurement process continue for one minute longer than is absolutely necessary. As the procurement process proceeds through the final stages, I will ensure that this House and its Members are regularly updated on the progress in delivering the objectives of the national broadband plan.

The State-led intervention and its procurement process is one element of the multifaceted national broadband plan working together to deliver a digital Ireland. The plan aims not just to intervene in the market but also stimulate commercial investment. To date, commercial investment of €2 million is continuing to deliver improved broadband services every single day, reducing Ireland's digital divide. That increased level of investment by commercial operators certainly has been influenced by the commitments outlined in the national broadband plan.

When I first took office, just over five in every ten premises had broadband. At the end of last year, that was nearly seven in every ten and, by the end of 2018, it will be nearly eight in every ten. By the end of 2018, it is envisaged that 79% of the population, 87% of schools and 96% of business parks will have access to high-speed broadband. In the past 12 months alone, new telecommunications infrastructure has been delivered to over 280,000 premises providing high-speed broadband services of up to 1 Gbit per second download speeds. In addition, the Eir rural 300,000 roll-out will deliver high-speed broadband to 810,000 people, one third of farms in the country and over 1,000 schools by the end of this year.

I appreciate that the increase in commercial investment is of little solace to the 990,000 or so citizens who will not be served by those commercial operators. However, the State intervention and the procurement process will provide those citizens with high-speed broadband access, regardless of location, and that will be future proofed for the next 25 years.

The intervention area will provide broadband to: 542,000 postal addresses; 990,000 citizens or 21% of the population; 381,000 members of the labour force; 52,057 farms or 61% of the total number of farms; 47,096 small and medium businesses, primarily micro-business; 437 or 13% of schools; and 310 business parks or 4% of the national total of business parks.

Significant progress is also being made across a number of areas to ensure efficient and effective delivery of the national broadband plan. I established the mobile phone and broadband task force in July 2016 in line with a commitment I had written into A Programme for A Partnership Government. The task force identifies solutions to potential obstacles faced by the roll out of the national broadband plan and aims to facilitate faster delivery of mobile and wireless broadband solutions across rural Ireland. In fact, the actions taken through the task force report will lead in the coming weeks to very significant announcements by both wireless and mobile operators who are looking to expand the network of broadband services across rural Ireland in the very short term. The task force's annual report will be published shortly and will identify the significant achievements made to date, including the positive impact of the broadband officers operating in each county and local authority.

In addition, there are other initiatives under way to maximise and enhance existing connectivity. For example, the release of the 3.6 GHz 5G capable spectrum in May 2017 will enable operators to provide faster fixed wireless and mobile services to customers and, as I said, I expect significant announcements on that in the coming weeks. A total of €8 million is currently being invested to facilitate the reallocation of the 700 Mhz spectrum away from TV broadcasting to support broadband and mobile telephony plans in rural areas. This means that valuable spectrum band is being freed up to deliver better mobile data services in rural areas.

As this process concludes I will ensure that Members of this House are kept up to date. I will continue to arrange special information sessions for Deputies and Senators as I have done on three occasions in the past ten months. I will ensure also that citizens can get information on the availability of high-speed broadband through my Department’s website, the dedicated in-box, including in particular the interactive high-speed broadband map.

The national broadband plan will deliver high-speed broadband to all premises throughout Ireland, both urban and rural. Although it has been a challenging and complex process, it is coming to an end. The Government and the Department remain committed to concluding this procurement process and we are confident that we will achieve a robust, future-proof contract that will enable the efficient roll-out of high-speed broadband throughout the country.