The Government has officially given the go-ahead for the National Broadband Plan.
The consortium led by Granahan McCourt - the sole remaining bidder in the tender process - has been named as the preferred bidder.
Cabinet approved the plan after a much longer than expected meeting this afternoon.
The Department of Public Expenditure has not always been convinced the almost €3 billion price tag for the project is good value for money.
However, officials in the Department of Communications have looked at other plans and think this is the right choice - and that other options would have cost more and taken longer.
They say the €3 billion figure is the 'maximum possible cost to the state' over 25 years.
Under the plan, high-speed broadband will be rolled out to every home, farm and business in the country.
National Broadband Plan approved at a cost of almost 3 billion. Aims to bring broadband to 1.1m people who don’t have it.
First homes connected 2020. Possible €100 charge to get it. Most of all properties connected in 7 years— Seán Defoe (@SeanDefoe) May 7, 2019
It's part of efforts to ensure more than 500,000 homes and businesses are connected - and the Government today claims 1.1 million people will benefit.
The first new homes will be connected in 2020 - but thousands of others may have to wait years to be on the grid.
In the first year of the plan, almost 300 Broadband Connection Points will be set up around the country.
That means while people might not immediately have broadband in their own home, they'll have somewhere close they can go to work - reducing the need to travel to big urban areas to get connection.
Communications Minister Richard Bruton said: “This investment will have a transformative effect on rural Ireland, future-proofing communities for generations to come.
"Digital technology is revolutionising how we live, learn and work and we want to make sure rural Ireland is not left behind."
Image: MerrionStreet.ieTaoiseach Leo Varadkar, meanwhile, defended the cost of the project - insisting they must make decisions now or stay stuck in the past.
"In ten years time people aren't going to ask about the price, they're going to ask why we didn't do it sooner" - Leo Varadkar
Taoiseach also says 3 billion isn't so bad when seen in context of other big capital projects— Seán Defoe (@SeanDefoe) May 7, 2019
The National Broadband Plan was initially announced in 2012, but has faced a series of delays in the years since.
All but one bidder for the contract pulled out of the race, and the expected cost to the State has risen six-fold to about €3bn.
While the Government looked for alternatives, a final report warned those alternatives would take much longer, could be more expensive and in some cases never deliver broadband to some homes.
Opposition reaction
Responding to the announcement, Fianna Fáil's communications spokesperson Timmy Dooley suggested that the rollout time for delivery of the project has now tripled from three to ten years.
He said: “Today’s announcement is another attempt by Fine Gael to make grand announcements without following through on delivery.
"Before any work can begin a contract must be signed, and we are still months away from signatures on a dotted line."
Deputy Dooley added: “The people waiting for broadband need it now, not 2029. They should be rightly sceptical about today’s announcement given the fact that every other timeline on this project has been missed."
People Before Profit's Bríd Smith suggested the tendering process represented a “historic fiasco that will make the National Children’s Hospital look like a bargain”.
She said: "This farce needs to stop and the state needs to take control and ownership of providing broadband by using existing semi-state companies like the ESB to provide it”.
Sinn Féin's Brian Stanley, meanwhile, called on Minister Bruton to answer questions in the Dáil about the plan and the cost escalation.
He argued: “Rural Ireland desperately needs broadband but the government has made a complete and utter mess of this process and we now need to see if there is value for money in this plan."
Earlier, Labour leader Brendan Howlin said the decision on a bidder should have been delayed while alternatives to spending €3 billion on the plan are examined.
He argued: "What we need now is all the facts, all the analysis, all the opinions, all the costing laid on the table - and for them to be rigorously checked by an Oireachtas committee.
"Then we can make a democratic decision."
