Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On the national broadband plan and the Minister's statement that he hopes to have a preferred bidder by September, is there a competitive element to the process such that a preferred bidder will be able to contract the use of telephone or electricity poles in providing fibre broadband for houses? If so, will the competitive element follow the selection of the preferred bidder or will it commence now? How does the Minister see it developing as an option? Given that the ESB is a State-owned company and that enet is owned publicly by a State investment fund, I imagine it is a complex regulatory issue as to which poles might be used, given that they have existing uses and so on. I would welcome some detail from the Minister on this aspect of the tendering process. Is it one of the handful of issues which the Minister mentioned which has yet to be resolved and if it is part of the tendering process, will it happen before or after the selection of the preferred bidder?