Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

For those of us who support the noble post-war aspirations that led to the European Union project, it is sometimes a cause for concern that the degree of intrusion by the apparatus of the European Union can be excessive. It is frustrating that one Directorate General is urging that quality of connectivity is a sine qua nonfor economic and social progress, while a different Directorate General dealing with competition demands that we comply with the letter of the law with a very strict rule book. We are, however, taking great care that our submission passes muster and the project will go out to procurement at that stage.

In regard to Deputy Kyne's question on whether the project will be awarded to one company, a decision has not been made in that regard. My view is that it ought not to be only one company. To some extent that will be determined by the precise economics of putting it out to procurement, for example, in terms of one company operating in Munster and a different company dealing with the rest of Ireland.

The ESB's project will proceed in parallel and I hope it will be ready to start stringing cable at the end of this year or, certainly, by quarter one of next year. Vodafone has been selected as the joint partner on foot of the expressions of interest process for the project. Detailed and conclusive work has been done on the project and I hope that a formal announcement will be made in the next couple of weeks. The aim is to reach 450,000 premises in rural Ireland. This is a joint commercial venture under the auspices of the ESB and Vodafone.

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