Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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507. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his views on the change in ownership of a company (details supplied) subject to approval by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the commitment by the proposed new owners to the national broadband plan following public statements regarding redirecting investment to urban areas; his further views on whether this will lead to further delays in the roll-out plans; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5666/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Concerning the proposed change in ownership referred to by the Deputy, while I am aware that the proposed purchase of Eircom Holdco S.A. (Eir) is currently being considered by the European Commission on competition grounds, I have no role in relation to the proposed transaction until the Commission has made its determination in this case. If the proposed transaction is cleared by the Commission, it must then be notified to me as Minister as a media merger and I will then make a determination whether or not it may proceed based on an assessment of its impact on the plurality of media in the State.

The examinations of all previous proposed media mergers conducted by my Department are available on my Department’s , as are a number of supplementary materials and a concerning the media mergers process.

As the Deputy will be aware, eir publicly withdrew from the National Broadband Plan procurement process on 30 January. While this is regrettable, it is a commercial decision for eir to make.

The specialist NBP procurement team will continue to engage intensively with all relevant stakeholders, including the enet/sse consortium, to ensure the earliest possible achievement of the Government’s objective of providing reliable high quality, high speed broadband to all premises in Ireland. When the procurement process reaches a satisfactory conclusion for Government, a contract will be awarded and the network rollout will commence.