Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept most of what the Minister has said. The gap-funding model was the right decision with the information that was available at the time. However, is it not clear that as the circumstances changed dramatically when both SIRO and Eir pulled out, there should have been a review at that stage? The Government resisted all efforts by the Opposition to have a review at that stage because it was rightly identified on this side of the House that the Government was leaving itself open to one bidder effectively holding it over a barrel. That now appears to have happened if we are to believe the rather well-informed leaks that we read frequently which suggest that the estimated costs have gone from €500 million to somewhere close to €3 billion. Is it not clear that it was a failure on the part of Government not to intervene when the fundamentals changed significantly?

Is it not also the case that everyone's back is to the wall? People are demanding broadband to be rolled out. We are in the throes of an election campaign and people expect it to be delivered. We are no closer to doing that because we do not know the ability of the remaining bidder to deliver. The Department claims that irrespective of who might have won the tender, the same set of subcontractors would be doing the work. However, will the success or failure of the contractor not be in the project management of such a large-scale project across wide geography with varying and difficult terrain? Therefore the skill sets required are not just about splicing or tracking fibre along poles. I know the Taoiseach has an issue in that he believes that fibre goes in the ground, but we will get over that. As the Minister knows, it principally goes along poles.

Is the really important component of the bidder for this project not the project management piece? I have searched extensively and I do not see the project management capability of Granahan McCourt, a private finance company based in Boston which has been very good at managing investments. I would argue that its expertise is in buying and selling and not delivering projects such as this. Over and above the mistakes that get made - I accept that - or the failure of the Government to intervene when it should have, the question now being asked, I think, is whether we should spend €3 billion and bet the future of the 540,000 premises and homes waiting for broadband on a private finance company based in Boston in the hope that it will somehow develop the project management skills to make such a large-scale project viable. After the decision to sign a contract, might we not find ourselves two or three years into it having to enforce some of the covenants for failure to deliver? Would that not be an unmitigated disaster for the people still waiting for broadband?