Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Eir is doing that. That is the subject of a commercial decision by a contractor who talked about this in 2015. The Government argued the toss and procrastinated - during a period when Deputy Naughten was and was not the Minister - and it sought a commitment that Eir was going to do it. This allowed the Government to take those 300,000 premises out from the bundle to be funded through State intervention. Technically, the Government's problem has been simplified further. It is now back to some 500,000 premises as there are 300,000 less to do. It does not all lie at the Minister's door but it does lie at the door of the Government. Can the Government stop riding on the back of Eir's commitment on a commercial basis and tell the Chamber when it will publish a timeline for the signing of the contract? We will then proceed with the three or five years that the contractors need to roll it out. We need a commitment. If the Minister is serious about managing his Department he needs to set a date by which the contract will be signed.

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