Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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44. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the expenditure to date on the broadband tendering process; the costs associated with the competitive tendering process and subsequent legal and consultancy advice; and the breakdown of fees paid to external agencies. [49387/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The contract that I signed with National Broadband Ireland on 19 November is the Government’s plan to rollout high speed broadband to the 1.1 million people living and working in the nearly 540,000 premises including almost 100,000 businesses and farms, along with 695 schools, where commercial operators will not commit to deliver the service.

The total amount spent to date on the National Broadband Plan is €28.833 million. This amount comprises the cost of external advisers and the costs associated with the procurement process and subsequent tender evaluation process. As part of their role to support my Department's team during the procurement process, these external advisers have provided essential expertise including, technical advice, financial and procurement advice, legal advice, economic and strategic advice, environmental advice and insurance and tax advice. The total amount paid to external advisers since the start of the National Broadband plan is €28.161 million.

A breakdown of the fees paid to external advisers is set out in the following table.

Table 1: Total Payments for advisory services by firm