Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Okay. On 16 April 2019, the then Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform wrote to Mr. Griffin. He opened the letter by stating "Against that background, I feel I must write to [Mr. Griffin] again in relation to the National Broadband Plan". The Secretary General continued:

Having expressed our concerns on a number of occasions at this stage in relation to the affordability and value for money of the proposed contract for the National Broadband Plan, I wish to re-emphasise one further time this Department's fundamental concerns in relation to the unprecedented risk that the State is being asked to bear in the event that the current NBP contract is recommended for approval by Government.

Any decision to approve the current contract and commit funding of up to €3 billion to this project over 25 years represents a major 'leap of faith' on the part of the Government ...

[...]

we [the Department] do not believe this CBA justifies the use of scarce public funds ...

Was the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform wrong in that regard? Does Mr. Griffin now believe that Department was wrong? Mr. Griffin has disagreed with me previously on this point.