Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Maybe the Minister did not fully understand what I was asking him. It is not about anything other than ensuring an independent process that has no potential, in the future, to be tainted or to be something about which questions could be raised. I am asking him to provide the House with the strategy to ensure that the outcome of the process will not be open to question by any of the unsuccessful bidders. He will know that this was a feature of various State contracts in the past, though I will not get into specifics on them. Is it his intention to put an evaluation board together with international expertise? How might he compile such a board to review the tenders?

The Minister has given me a clear picture of what the national broadband strategy hopes to achieve and I welcome that. He has also told me about the discussions that have taken place but at some point a group of people will have to make a decision to pick one or two of the three consortia. Therein lies the potential for problems and the House needs to know how the Minister intends to ensure that the panel is above and beyond reproach and not open to question from any particular party.

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