Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his support for what we are doing. His assessment of what we are doing and his analysis of what is necessary is spot on. We are rigorously assessing new and existing industry investment commitments in order to ensure it delivers the services that have been promised. The Deputy laid some emphasis on speed of delivery. That is a factor that we must all be conscious of, but it is not the only one. When we assess what we are being told, we look behind mere assertion. That is the point of an assessment process. The commercial operators understand this. Assertions are not taken entirely at face value.

We have our own expert input available to us in order to assess and evaluate the quality and credibility of what is being said and the intentions. The speed of delivery is one issue but there are others, as the Deputy will appreciate.

Very considerable work is being done on this. We are on target to do what we said we would do. When I became Minister, we said we would publish the map in November. We did that. We said we would come back in July of this year with the detailed intervention strategy, and we did so. We then said we would have further consultation in respect of that and the map and that we would commence the procurement process by December. We are on target to do that. We are moving ahead with this project, which is critical to the people for the reasons the Deputy has set out in terms of the economic, social and cultural and educational benefits. The Deputy is absolutely correct in this regard. We are progressing this project and I thank the Deputy for his support.

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