Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 June 2019
232. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the cost of the roll-out of the national broadband plan in areas already covered by a commercial plan to cover 300,000 premises; when this roll-out was agreed; if this took place before or after the departure of a company (details supplied) from the bidding process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25779/19]
Amharc ar fhreagra233. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the barriers in place to ensure issues regarding the roll-out of the national broadband plan do not break state aid rules (details supplied). [25780/19]
Amharc ar fhreagra235. Deputy Timmy Dooley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the rationale for the duplication of fibre as part of the national broadband plan in areas in which fibre infrastructure is already in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25782/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 232, 233 and 235 together.
Under EU State Aid guidelines, it is a requirement that Member States thoroughly evaluate commercial plans so as to ensure that State Aid is confined to areas of well-defined market failure, where commercial investment is unlikely to occur in the near future. The deployment of the National Broadband Plan network is currently to provide access to high speed broadband to circa 540,000 premises across the State. The relevant premises are identified by Eircode and are represented as AMBER on my Department’s High Speed Broadband Map. It is open to the Department within the NBP contract to increase or decrease the scope of the contract post-contract award where it is considered necessary to do so, for example to ensure on-going compliance with State Aid rules.
The National Broadband Plan procurement process was run on a technology neutral basis and sought to elicit the best technical solution from participating bidders to address the market failure identified and deliver on the minimum technical specifications set down in the tender documents. In line with State Aid Guidelines, the solution proposed by the successful Bidder was based on the maximum reuse of existing infrastructure to the greatest extent possible, which under the final tender provided involves deployment of new fibre cable over existing eir poles and through existing eir ducts, as well as some new build where no existing infrastructure exists.
The solution proposed at final tender was subject to a robust evaluation and was found to have met all the requirements set out since 2016.
The network design put forward at final tender met and in some areas exceeded the minimum technical specifications set down in the tender requirements, including the requirement to provide concrete commitments around how the network will be future proofed to meet end user demand over at least the next 25 years. It was a critical part of the assessment that any network design and technical solution put forward by any Bidder provided the necessary assurance and confidence that this could be achieved over the medium to long term. These commitments are also contractually binding on the Bidder.
