Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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604. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if there will be no further work carried out on providing broadband to over 542,000 premises during the next 77 weeks until a company (details supplied) has completed the separate contract commitment to provide broadband to 300,000 premises. [32086/17]

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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605. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if the contract of undertaking between a company (details supplied) and the government requires that no further work take place on the NBP until its work connecting the 300,000 premises was completed. [32087/17]

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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606. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the reason his department will not publish target dates for contract signing, work commencement and completion dates for the rollout of broadband to the 542,000 premises identified in the NBP as requiring State support. [32088/17]

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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607. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of the ongoing procurement process for the national broadband plan. [32183/17]

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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613. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the number of homes in the light blue area of the NBP map that have been connected to broadband services in June 2017, by county; and if this number meets the requirements of the government's agreement with a company (details supplied). [32191/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 604 to 607, inclusive, and 613 together.

The Government's National Broadband Plan (NBP) will provide high speed broadband access of a minimum of 30 megabits per second to all premises in Ireland, regardless of location. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector so that to date approximately 1.4m or 61% of the 2.3m premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband of a minimum of 30 megabits per second and this footprint is expanding.

In April, eir signed an agreement with me committing them to follow through on their commercial plans to provide new high speed broadband infrastructure to 300,000 premises in rural areas. eir has committed to doing this work over a 90 week period with an average of 500 premises passed per day. A copy of the Commitment Agreement is available on my Department's website at .

The focus of the agreement is the delivery by eir of its commitment to rollout a fibre high speed broadband network to over 300,000 premises. The agreement includes quarterly milestones to be achieved by eir, which are subject to formal evaluation by my Department. My Department has concluded that eir met the milestone to pass 40,000 premises by the end of April of this year and initial indications are that eir has also met its Quarter 2 target. A formal evaluation of eir's Quarter 2 performance will be conducted by my Department shortly.

The procurement process that is being managed by my Department to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network within the State intervention area is progressing independently of the Commitment Agreement. There is no provision in the agreement that would preclude rollout of a State subsidised network in the NBP intervention area being carried out in parallel with the eir rollout.

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. The three bidders have indicated that they are proposing a predominantly fibre-to-the-home solution. A fibre-to-the-home solution means that householders and businesses may get speeds not just of 30 megabits per second but much higher, potentially up to 1000 megabits per second.

With the finalisation of the map and following extensive dialogue with bidders, the procurement process has progressed to the next stage. The 'Detailed Solutions' stage is the last stage of the procurement process before Final Tenders. The timeframe for 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.