Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My priority and that of the officials in my Department is to roll out as much mobile, wireless, fixed-line or fibre broadband as we can as quickly as possible. We are facilitating the commercial operators in doing that. We are pushing the national broadband plan as far as we can. We are working closely with the three preferred bidders and the European Commission on the communications and competition sides. They are fully conscious of all the issues involved here. We have received our own internal legal advice on this matter. We are conscious of the need to be careful in everything we do in this regard. There is always a risk that one of the unsuccessful bidders could take legal action in the future. We are trying to ensure any case that arises in the future does not hold up the roll-out of the network. We are also seeking to ensure we will be able to defend any such case. This is a very complex process. The contract runs to 2,000 pages. Therefore, I cannot give a definitive timeline at the moment.

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