Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport
National Broadband Plan Update: National Broadband Ireland
Mr. T.J. Malone:
The existing subcontractors have increased their workforce. Those are the existing guys we have there. They can only bring on workers or we can only increase the workforce when we have the actual work for them, so it has been about building that momentum and getting the work there. They have increased their workforce. We have increased our overall workforce by 25% this year. The existing contracts are a part of that and we have brought another principal contractor onto the pitch called Gaeltec, which is based out of Kilkenny. On top of that we are in a procurement process to add another three contractors to the pitch. That will bring them into the framework, and as and when we have enough work to bring them in or, indeed, if we have any issues with any of the existing contractors, we will step them onto the pitch.
We will be bringing in three additional contractors. We talk about resources and tightness of resources, which have been a problem across a number of industries, but I have never seen as much interest in contractors looking to come into the programme with us than at the moment. It is key for us to have them there and be ready so that when the self-install product comes, we have-----
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