James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will group a number of questions together but I hope to get answers to each one. People are listening to this and they are following the tender and procurement processes, as well as the chronological and regulatory issues. What they want to know, however, is what will happen next and when they will get broadband. I recently spoke about some of my constituents in Kildare North, which is on the Dublin border and is 30 km from Leinster House, who cannot get it. The western parts of Dublin cannot get it, never mind the west coast of Ireland. Therefore, what is the best-case scenario? I mean if everything goes smoothly, everyone is singing and dancing, everything is up to scratch and we hit the ground running in a way that, as the Minister said himself, is even better than had Eir not pulled out, that is, if we hit the ground with the shovels in hand. Will it be in two, three or five years' time that those people can expect to get connections? What is the worst case? We hope that we do not lose our final remaining bidder but, if things go wrong, what is the worst-case scenario? What is the mitigation planning around that?

My second point relates to the legislative framework. I mentioned the EU cost reduction framework in the House the other night. This was transposed into Irish law in July 2016. Has that been used yet? Was it considered? Does it form part of the tender? I hope it does. If he can, will the Minister clarify whether it is part of the tender? It should make it easier and allow legal access to many infrastructure assets that are required to roll it out. It is EU law that is now Irish law.