Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I think the Committee of Public Accounts has to watch the cost of the broadband decisions that are being made and commitments that will tie the taxpayer. The scale of the investment in the national broadband plan is at least double what is being proposed in the National Children's Hospital. If the Committee of Public Accounts were to say it is only €4 billion and we are not going to look at it, we would not be doing our job. We need to be as informed as possible when we are dealing with the national broadband plan. We already had a letter this morning from the Department which is shocking, saying that they specified 30 MB of download and 6 MB of upload, which is pathetic. They should not proceed if that is what they are talking about. We do not want the State to be spending over €3 billion on something that is out of date years before it is even switched on. They have not defined what.