Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

At that point, the State will have the ability to step in, if it so wishes. If it believes certain criteria have been met, we will have the ability to step in and acquire what is in place. The key point is that, if the contract has been fulfilled by that stage, 100,000 homes will have been connected to broadband per year. This relates to the point I teased out with Deputy Stanley. Given the commitment to achieve 100% coverage and the use of fibre optic technology and if we want to do this quickly, the subsidy is being front-loaded at the start. The step-in clauses apply to years four and six. The State will have the ability to step in, but if the contract has been delivered in line with how it should be, as I expect it will be, many hundreds of thousands of homes will by that point have fibre optic broadband connectivity.