Written answers

Tuesday, 26 April 2016

Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

National Broadband Plan

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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462. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status and timeline for completion of the procurement process for the €250 million intervention strategy as part of the national broadband strategy. [8222/16]

Photo of Alex WhiteAlex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to ensure that every citizen and business, regardless of location, has access to a high quality, high speed broadband service. This will be achieved through a combination of commercial investments and a State led intervention in areas where commercial services will not be provided.

On 29 September 2015, the Government agreed and published its 6 year Capital Plan, Building on Recovery, which included an allocation of €275m for the National Broadband Plan. This will provide the initial stimulus required to deliver the Government's intervention and it is expected that further funding will be available over the lifetime of any contract(s).

Funding of €75m is also committed through the European Regional Development Fund which can be drawn down after Exchequer exenditure is first incurred.

On 22 December 2015, I formally launched a major Government procurement process for the State intervention to deliver a high quality high speed broadband infrastructure to over 750,000 premises in Ireland. The formal procurement process commenced with the publication of the Pre-qualification Questionnaire ('PQQ') and Project Information Memorandum. Five responses were received from prospective bidders to this stage of the competitive procurement process by the deadline of  31 March 2016. The five responses are now being assessed in line with the criteria set down by the Department with a view to short listed qualified bidders proceeding to the next stage of procurement.

The second stage in the procurement process will be a formal Invitation to Participate in Dialogue (ITPD) to shortlisted bidders. The third stage of the procurement process involves the issue of final tender documentation, which follows the ITPD process. Following the submission of final tenders by bidders, a winning bidder or bidders will be selected for the two lots/one lot as set out in the Intervention Strategy document. The Department will then enter into formal contract negotiations with the winning bidder(s).

The timing of each stage of the procurement process is dependent on a number of factors, including the number of bidders short-listed and the complexities that may be encountered during the dialogue process. Based on extensive procurement planning, the granting of an earlier industry request for an extension to the PQQ submission deadline, and the number of responses received, it is envisaged that the Department will finalise the procurement process in 2017.

Building the network in the intervention area remains a priority and the Department will engage with the winning bidder(s) on the optimum rollout strategy, and on the sequencing of the network deployment to maximise efficiencies during network build, having regard to business and consumer needs, and to areas of particularly poor service and areas of strong demand. All these factors will need to be balanced against the most efficient network rollout and will be agreed during the procurement process.

Engagement with industry stakeholders as part of the pre-procurement consultations has indicated that the rollout in the Amber area could be achieved within 3-5 years of the contract award. In this context, the NBP proposes that through the combination of commercial investment and State intervention, 85% of all premises in Ireland (both commercial and intervention area) will have access to high speed broadband within two years of the contract award, with 100% of premises connected within 5 years.

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