Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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202. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the reason a company (details supplied) withdrew from the national broadband plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48332/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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On the 26th of September this year my Department received "Detailed Solutions" from two bidders as part of the ongoing procurement process to select a bidder, or bidders, who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network for those areas that will not be served by commercial operators acting alone.  These bidders were Eircom Limited and the Granahan McCourt, enet, SSE, John Laing Group plc consortium. This significant and positive milestone marks the last stage of the procurement process before receipt of final tenders and ultimate progression to the appointment of a preferred bidder(s) and the rollout of the State Intervention network.  My Department's specialist NBP team is in the process of evaluating these submissions. On the same day SIRO formally communicated to my Department its withdrawal from the competitive procurement process, indicating it could not develop a business case to justify continued participation in the NBP bid process. SIRO did not come to this decision lightly and remains strongly supportive of the National Broadband Plan, continuing its focus on an investment of €450m to provide fibre broadband to 500,000 premises across 51 towns across Ireland. At the end of September last, some 100,000 premises had been passed by SIRO.

Notwithstanding SIRO's withdrawal, the fact remains that this procurement process is still competitive involving two strong operators in the telecommunications field.