Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 28 May 2019
Committee on Budgetary Oversight
National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister published some information which has not been redacted or blanked out. It states that the information presented in the document was developed with the intent of illustrating what could be achieved in a plan B scenario using high-level assumptions and assuming favourable timelines to complete several complex tasks. It states that the subsidy estimates presented in the paper, as well as the costings, revenue projections, timelines and other supporting assumptions, have been extrapolated from information provided by the bidder and experience gained through engagement with the market through the national broadband plan intervention programme during the past five years. This seems to indicate that the information presented to the Minister in respect of alternatives came from the bidder. If it did not, the Minister needs to tell me otherwise.