Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

The Minister has not given a satisfactory explanation for the time delay between July last and now. He now states that we will not see it until the end of March because he wants to get a better deal for the taxpayer. The taxpayer is losing by the day because we do not have a satisfactory broadband infrastructure across the country, partly because we have a great many wires and fibre in the ground that are not being used because of delays in the Minister's office.

Maybe he could tell us how many of the 58 MANs phase II under interim management are being used at present. He stated they are available for use and I dispute that. How many of the 58 are being used and why is the Department delaying putting a contract in place for the proper management of this expensive piece of broadband infrastructure?

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