Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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27. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when the procurement process for the national broadband plan will be complete; and the estimated ratio of public to private spending on the project. [32044/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The National Broadband Plan represents a very 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 a Partnership Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority.

The Department is now in a formal procurement process to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network to the over 750,000 premises in Ireland, covering 100,000km of road network and 96% of the land area of Ireland.  Intensive dialogue with bidders is continuing and the three bidders have indicated that they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution.  Householders and businesses may get speeds not just of 30 Megabits per second but potentially 1,000 Megabits per second with businesses potentially availing of symmetrical upload and download speeds.

Earlier this year, before I came into office, the Department announced that it would be June 2017 before contract(s) were awarded under the NBP. The bidders in the process have recently indicated that they may need more time to conclude the procurement process. The timing of each stage of the procurement continues to be dependent on a range of factors including the complexities that may be encountered by the procurement team, and bidders, during the procurement process. Bidders need adequate time to prepare detailed proposals and their final formal bids and get the relevant shareholder and funding approvals at key stages of the process. I do not propose to comment any further at this juncture given the sensitivity of discussions in the procurement process.

I can confirm that the Government's Capital Investment Plan includes an initial provision of €275m for the NBP up to 2021.  This  represents an initial stimulus for the first five years of the NBP intervention with the remaining payments being spread over the full 25 years of the contract.  It would be inappropriate for me to comment on the potential ratio of public to private spending on the project while a competitive process is underway.

I can assure the Deputy that the procurement process is being intensively managed, to ensure an outcome that delivers a future-proofed network that serves homes and businesses across Ireland, for at least 25 years.