Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Does the documentation to date have a price and a technical solution? Has the remaining bidder provided a technical solution and a price to roll out high-speed broadband to 542,000 homes across the State? On 30 January, Eir pulled out of the process. I think this is a game-changer, following the decision of Vodafone and ESB to pull out last September. Mr. Richard Moat, the chief executive of Eir, wrote to the Minister and the Minister has provided an awful lot of information to the committee in the past number of days. Despite the fact that there is a lot of information, however, we do not have many answers. In the second paragraph of his letter, Mr. Moat said the decision to exit the NBP process was driven by a range of commercial, regulatory and governance issues that had been repeatedly highlighted over the past 18 months and that this had been consistently noted in discussions on 30 August 2017 and in his correspondence of 17 July 2017.

Is the Minister prepared to publish the notes of the meeting of 30 August 2017 and correspondence between himself and Eir on 17 July? This would be helpful for us in understanding more clearly the decisions of Eir.

In the past 18 months, I have repeatedly asked the Minister to publish a timeline, a notional date, Gantt chart or project time to which he is working that sets out the best estimate for signing the contract? Following from that, will he indicate when the work to roll out the infrastructure will begin and when all 542,000 homes will have broadband? While I accept that delays will occur from time to time, thus far, we have had 19 months of delays in the process. The Minister regularly informs me that it is better to get this right than stick to a specific deadline. Now that I and others are seeking to assist him at this juncture, he has suddenly expressed deep concern about the potential for delays. Against what notional timeline is he measuring these delays because he has not yet published anything about it?

On the issue of whether he has confidence in the process, at a press conference after the withdrawal of Eir from the process, the Minister stated, when pressed by a journalist on the potential for the process to fail, that there was contingency planning and a plan B in place. It would be helpful if he were to publish this plan B. Does he accept that the purpose of the intervention of Opposition parties is to achieve the same result as the Minister seeks to achieve, namely, the roll-out of high-speed broadband to 542,000 homes? He must also have doubts as otherwise he would not have a plan B. The Minister and I share the same doubts. I want to call time on the process if there is a fatal flaw that will lead to its collapse. If so, it would be better if we identified now rather than trundling headlong into a roadblock in 12, 18 or 24 months' time and being forced to revert to plan B.

I do not want to get into a discussion about Enet but I will raise a couple of points with the Minister. Rather than refusing to answer questions on this matter, the Minister stated the company is well funded and capitalised, has significant experience and is rolling out broadband to beat the band up and down the highways and by-ways of the United States. On other occasions, he juxtaposed these claims with a comment Enet needs this project as a test bed and means of improving its credentials to win contracts all over the world. This somehow indicates that he has the company over a barrel because it needs the project more than he does. What is the position? Does Enet have considerable experience which it can bring to the table or does the company view this project as a test bed and some kind of loss leader which will allow it to develop its credentials and move to the next stage? As I stated, it would be helpful if the Minister could answer some or all of those questions.