Minister of State Seán Canney has criticised a proposal to recommend re-opening the procurement process for the National Broadband Plan.

The proposal passed during a vote earlier this week at the Oireachtas Communications Committee.

Minister Canney says the approach is ill-advised and ill-timed.

He says: "The consequence of collapsing the process would delay the implementation of high-speed fibre broadband to rural Ireland for another three to four years and costs would rise.

"The recommendation to bring the network back into public ownership also makes no sense when the infrastructure being used - the poles - are already in private ownership.

"This would also inevitably lead to additional costs."

The Government officially gave the go-ahead for the plan in May.

A consortium led by Granahan McCourt - the sole remaining bidder in the tender process - was named as the preferred bidder.

Officials in the Department of Communications have said the €3bn price tag 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.

Mr Canney adds: "Previous Governments made decisions against public ownership and we have to work within those parameters.

"Anybody or any business that thinks it can deliver high-speed rural broadband quicker or cheaper than the current option had a clear opportunity to make that submission during the procurement process. None was forthcoming.

"There has been a complete lack of understanding of the very thorough procurement process which has been carried out over the last two to three years."

The first new homes will be connected in 2020 - but thousands of others may have to wait years to be on the grid.