Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent)
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500. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the names of the companies involved in the tendering process for the recent broadband contract; the criteria involved in drawing up the tender; the companies which got the tender; and how the value of the tender. [18312/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The National Broadband Plan (NBP) aims to deliver high speed services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for a Partnership Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority.  This is being achieved through private investment by commercial telecommunications companies and through a State intervention in areas where commercial investment is not forthcoming.

The procurement process for the State intervention to provide high quality, high speed broadband to over 750,000 premises formally commenced in December 2015 with the publication of the Pre-qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) and Project Information Memorandum. The procurement takes the form of a competitive dialogue which is complex and involves several steps:

- Step 1:Publication of the Pre-qualification Questionnaire – this step was launched on 22 December 2015.

- Step 2:Five responses were received to this stage of the process, by the deadline of 31 March (which was extended by one month, from 29 February to 31 March at the request of bidders). These responses have now been evaluated.

- Step 3:Qualified bidders will be invited to commence dialogue (Invitation to Participate in Dialogue). This is scheduled to commence within the next month and will take a number of months;

- Step 4: Bidders will be invited to submit detailed solutions for further dialogue (Invitation to submit detailed solutions);

- Step 4a: Bidders will then submit  detailed solutions for evaluation;

- Step 5:Bidders will be invited to submit final, formal tenders following further dialogue

- Step 5a:Bidders submit formal tenders;

- Step 6:Formal tenders submitted by qualified bidders will be evaluated.

- Step 7:Preferred bidder(s) identified

- Step 8:25 year contract awarded – June 2017.

The Deputy will see from Step 3 above that the second stage in the competitive process involves the formal Invitation to Participate in Dialogue (ITPD) to qualifying bidders. This step will commence in the coming weeks. The Deputy will appreciate that the procurement process is ongoing and that I am not in a position to provide the details of prospective bidders.

The timing of each stage of the procurement is dependent on a number of factors, including but not limited to the complexities that may be encountered during the dialogue process.  Bidders will need several months to prepare their draft bids and their final formal bids and to get the relevant shareholder and funding approvals at these stages of the process.  The Government's Capital Plan commits initial stimulus funding of €275m for the first five years of the NBP. Ultimately the outcome of the procurement process will determine the final cost of the intervention. Therefore, and in order to ensure a competitive procurement process, I am not in a position to speculate about the potential overall cost of the intervention.

As part of the competitive process, the Department will engage with winning bidder(s) on the best rollout strategy, in order to target areas of particularly poor service, business needs and / or high demand. This will need to be balanced with the most efficient network rollout plan.  A prioritisation programme will be put in place in this regard, in consultation with the Minister for Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht. A detailed rollout plan for the network will be published once contract(s) are in place.

The Programme for a Partnership Government commits also to measures to assist in the rollout of the network once a contract is awarded.  In this regard, Minister Humphreys is leading on the establishment of county or regional broadband taskforces, working with Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Offices, LEADER Groups and other relevant agencies to help accelerate the broadband network build in rural Ireland, once a contract(s) has been awarded.