Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 28 May 2019

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform

Photo of Eamon RyanEamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Is it not the case that we are actually in for €3.25 billion? In the letters the Minister mentioned, there was an acknowledgement that we would have to pay €10 million per year in current expenditure for departmental staff. As I told delegates from that Department when they appeared before the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment last week, one rarely sees a budget being withdrawn. That is the nature of the Civil Service, as the Minister knows. It is difficult to take salt from soup. As such, are we not potentially looking at a figure of €3.25 billion, rather than €3 billion?