Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Any of the timeline indications I have given to the House have so far been maintained. The Deputy is right in saying that the big hard stops will be the procurement process late in the year, in November and December. The next stage is to bring the intervention strategy to Cabinet, I hope in July, the pre-notification process to DG Competition and then to get on to the procurement application by the end of the year. That is what I said when I came into this office and I am still confident I can achieve that.

People's frustrations are understandable and legitimate, particularly when they can see the services others have near them, perhaps in the next town, and they compare what they could have with what they have. There is an element of me having to say that we ask people to keep faith with this process. It is a very big operation to have an intervention to cover a huge proportion of the land mass of the State in order to deliver high-speed broadband. We can and will do it, but it will take time to do it properly. Hardly a day passes without me having some engagement with senior colleagues in the Department to ensure the process is driving on, and driving on it is.

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