Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

To fast forward, there is another tendering process at present under the national broadband plan. It was supposed to be a competitive tender but, unfortunately, two of the entities that were tendering have pulled out. We are told that competition will be important in driving down price. Would that not have also been the case with regard to this particular extension? For example, BT Ireland has said publicly that it had expressed an interest in tendering. If one does not tender one does not know what the competitive pressure will be in evaluating costs. Why did that not happen?