Hub details unveiled as broadband plan gets approval

The details of 300 broadband hubs are to be announced when the Government finally signs off on the National Broadband Plan today.

Ministers were called to Government Buildings for an earlier-than-usual Cabinet meeting at 7.30am to approve the €3bn plan and allow for an announcement ahead of markets opening.

Work on the project will now get underway in every county before Christmas.

Communications Minister Richard Bruton is due to announce details of the broadband hubs at an event in Co Wicklow this morning.

The hubs will be installed in isolated areas as households wait to be connected to the network.

Broadband officers who were appointed in each of the 31 local authority areas had been tasked with identifying broadband blackspots to locate access points. The hubs will be located in primary schools, post offices, community centres and other suitable buildings.

Former Communications Minister Denis Naughten said: “The objective is to bring hot-desking facilities into those communities initially, so that people, while they may not have high-speed broadband in their own home, there will be somewhere within their community that they can go to avail of high speed broadband facilities.

“That particularly benefits people who are working from home or have the opportunity to work from home and that’s the first priority in relation to the build out,” he said.

While the National Broadband Plan has been plagued by controversy, delays and budget overruns, government sources are adamant that unlike the National Children’s Hospital the cost of the infrastructure will not increase further as the project commences.

The project has jumped from an initial estimate of €500m to just under €3bn including Vat.

“The contract which is being signed is deemed the final account,” one senior source said.

It is understood almost €500m has also been built into the contract to allow for contingencies.

While broadband will be supplied to homes all over the country as part of the plan, €938m of the €2.6bn pre-Vat cost will be spent on connecting those in the Atlantic economic corridor which takes in 10 counties from Donegal to Kerry.

The decision to approve the deal comes days after the European Commission granted state aid approval to the plan.

The approval has cleared the way to allow the contract for the €3bn plan to be signed by the Government and National Broadband Ireland, which was awarded the contract in May.

The plan aims to bring high-speed internet to more than 540,000 houses and businesses in rural Ireland, has been engulfed in controversy for several years as several bidders withdrew.

The Granahan McCourt consortium, the sole remaining bidder, was granted preferred bidder status earlier this year.