Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 28 February 2019
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (Revised)
Vote 2 - Department of An Taoiseach (Revised)
Vote 3 - Office of the Attorney General (Revised)
Vote 4 - Central Statistics Office (Revised)
Vote 5 - Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Revised)
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Revised)
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source
On broadband, and as I have indicated in the Dáil on a number of occasions, we do not yet have a preferred bidder. We have one bidder left, yet to be designated as the preferred bidder. We have yet to make a decision as to whether we go ahead with the national broadband programme. The cost is going to be multiples of what was projected many years ago. Going ahead would not have a significant impact, or any impact at all, on this year, but it would have an impact on future years. We will have to bear that in mind in making a decision. Very different from the children's hospital, this is a 30-year project, so the cost is spread over 30 years. It involves private finance and user fees, so it is a very different financial model, but it would have an impact on the capital envelope in 2020 and beyond, and we will have to take that into account.
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