National broadband plan to be approved
The Government is expected to approve the long-waited national broadband plan tomorrow after considering 11 alternatives to the costly project in rolling out a high-speed network.
A number of reports will be published which detail how a plan B would take potentially a number of years to agree, would be more costly and ultimately may not reach all rural areas.
Instead, the Cabinet is set to agree to award a contract, capped at €3bn, for broadband to Granahan McCourt Capital.
Amid concerns about the high cost for rural broadband delivery, a final report has warned against alternatives and will say:
“The analysis shows that all of the alternative options identified would take longer to reach 100% of the intervention area premises compared to the current plan (or in some cases 100% would never be achieved), may be more costly, in most cases would require a consultation on a new strategy as well as a new procurement process and State aid application.”
Communications Minister Richard Bruton will deliver the recommendation to Government.
Cabinet will also be told that finding an alternative could add up to two years during another consultation and tendering process.
The project, to deliver broadband for over 510,000 homes and premises, has been delayed for several years already.
The ESB’s roll in delivering the network was also shot down by Attorney General Seamus Woulfe, who advised “that there are significant legal risks in relation to both procurement law and state aid law, if the State was to mandate and fund directly outside a procurement process any economic undertaking, including a commercial semi-state entity such as ESB, to carry out the National Broadband Plan.”
Other alternatives looked at included a two-phased state intervention for broadband delivery. This involved rolling out fibre to select locations to incentivise more commercial investment.
Another options looked at a state-subsidised network with lower quality speeds at peak hours.
State control and ownership of critical infrastructure was also examined.
One report on the project options looked at how to make significant savings by cutting out remote parts of the country. The KPMG review of the tender looked at only completing 80% of areas, resulting in €650m where 108,000 of the premises would not get access to fast broadband.
Another model in the review predicted €300m would be saved if 95% of the project was delivered. But this would leave out over 27,000 homes and premises.
Both Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Labour leader Brendan Howlin believe the State-owned ESB should roll out the plan.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last week said delays in Cabinet agreeing the tender were because the coalition wanted to “make sure that there wasn’t a better alternative — an option that would have been quicker or cheaper.”
Commenting the cost, Mr Howlin said: “Fine Gael is showing that it cannot be trusted, not to play politics with the public finances, as all its recent actions are focused on the next elections rather than the long-term public good.”
