Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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857. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount paid to each of the external advisers who are working on the national broadband plan from the date on which they were included in the plan to date by year and person engaged; the title role and or position within the adviser group in tabular form; if a person (details supplied) has engaged other consultants to assist with their review of the process; the date on which they will conclude their work; the date on which their report will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45545/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I refer the Deputy to my reply to Question no. 249 of 18 October 2018.

Expenditure on the National Broadband Plan was first incurred in 2013.The total expenditure to date since then is approximately €22.2 million. This expenditure includes the cost of corporate finance and economic advice, technical support and network design, the cost of legal advice, environmental advice and process auditor costs.  These services were procured by way of competitive tender.In addition, the Department has staff and other administrative costs, along with travel and expenses costs for the independent Steering Group members and event costs related to the NBP.  The table below sets out payments by year.

Table 1: NBP Total spend by Year

All figures include VAT.

I also attach a detailed table setting out expenditure on external advisers under the NBP from the date of their engagement.

The procurement process to appoint a bidder for the State intervention network is now at the final stage, with evaluation ongoing of the final tender submission received on 18 September. The Taoiseach has asked Mr Peter Smyth, the independent process auditor to the NBP procurement to review the process. Mr. Smyth will submit a report to the Taoiseach and to me as Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment. This review is taking place is parallel with the evaluation being carried out by the Department’s procurement team on the final tender.

A schedule of payments made to date on the NBP is set out in the following tables for each year, specifying the companies paid and the services engaged.

Table 2: Schedule of NBP Payments in 2013

Table 3: Schedule of NBP Payments in 2014