PAC labels National Broadband Plan not 'value for money' as all targets are missed

With less than a 20 per cent take-up rate, the National Broadband Plan (NBP) has been been described by the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as not being 'value for money'

Under the €2.7bn plan, just 7,000 premises have actually been connected to the network.

This represents a take-up rate of 18.4pc, far below the target of 85pc.

No target has been met so far, with only 34,454 premises having passed by the network by the end of January,. A goal of 60,000 had been set by the end of 2021.

National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the body responsible for the roll-out of the plan, has admitted it is currently six months behind the project’s progress.

The PAC said in a report that the committee “is not satisfied that NBI’s targeted 85pc take-up rate is realistic”. Chairman Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley raised concerns that households will instead opt to connect to high-speed broadband from other providers.

“Given that NBI has received approximately €132.3m in subsidies to the end of quarter three 2021, the committee is concerned that the progress achieved to date does not represent value for money for the taxpayer,” the report said.

Deputy Stanley said that some premises and households across the country were already well serviced by other broadband providers and that the low take-up rate of 7,000 implied that the demand for the network may not be there.

“The Department must strive to dramatically increase the take-up rate of the network, given the level of investment by the State in this project. The Committee also wants quarterly reports of the total amount of State subsidies received by NBI, the total number of connections made to, and premises passed by, the NBP network to date, and the total value and nature of any penalties applied by the Department to NBI for failure to meet its contractual obligations," Deputy Stanley said.