Peadar Tóibín
Ceist:1257. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the current stage of the tendering process for the national broadband plan. [19228/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 2 May 2017
Ceisteanna (1257, 1258)
Peadar Tóibín
Ceist:1258. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if there is a legal opportunity to seek the acceleration of the procurement process under the national broadband plan for the supply of high-speed broadband at this stage. [19229/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraFreagraí scríofa
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1257 and 1258 together.
The National Broadband Plan (NBP) represents a very significant capital investment project for the State and aims to deliver high speed services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority.
The Government’s Intervention Strategy is available on my Department's website at: http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/communications/en-ie/Pages/Publication/Ireland's-Broadband-Intervention-Strategy-update.aspx and sets out a detailed service specification including a requirement that the State-funded network must be capable of delivering high-quality, high speed broadband of at least 30 megabits per second download and 6 megabits per second upload, in addition to being future proofed.
On the 4th April, 2017 I published an updated High Speed Broadband Map which is available at www.broadband.gov.ie. The Map shows the following categories of areas for delivery of broadband:
- The BLUE areas represent those areas where commercial telecommunications providers are either currently delivering or have indicated plans to deliver high speed broadband services,
- The AMBER areas on the High Speed Broadband Map represent the areas that will require State Intervention and are the subject of the current procurement process.
The updated Map gives certainty to the bidders in terms of the State Intervention Area for the procurement process. This is an important milestone as it means that bidders can progress their business plans and the Department can move to the next stage of the procurement.
A formal procurement process is in train to select a company or companies who will rollout a new high speed broadband network within the State Intervention area. 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 NBP procurement process is following the “Competitive Dialogue” model and intensive dialogue with bidders is ongoing.
Following the Competitive Dialogue stage, the next step in the process is to formally invite bidders to submit detailed solutions which will be evaluated by the Department in line with the approved evaluation methodology. This in turn will be followed by the issue of the final tender. The evaluation of final tenders will lead to the selection of a preferred bidder(s) fit to fully deliver on the Government’s objective of a truly open-access, wholesale network that delivers quality, affordable high speed broadband services to all premises in the intervention area.
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. During the Department's extensive stakeholder consultations in 2015, telecommunications service providers indicated a 3-5 year timeline to rollout a network of the scale envisaged under the NBP, once contracts are in place.
The Programme for Government also commits to measures to assist in the rollout of the network once a contract is awarded. The Department will engage with winning bidder(s) on the best rollout strategy, in order to target areas of particularly poor service, business needs and/or high demand and a prioritisation programme.