Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

Of the overall NDP funding, €50 million will be spent by the end of this year. There is significant spending this year on metropolitan area networks and the group broadband schemes. In 2007, some money was spent on group broadband schemes This still leaves the bulk of the funding finance available.

We deliberately will not give a figure because it is a competitive tendering process. As with any other project, one cannot get best value for the State — there are times when we must get best value — by going out with an estimate as to what the contract bid might cost. I will outline the benefits and the reasoning behind this because it is important that we——

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