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

First, and it is not me who stated this, because no one in this House has believed me when I have said it on numerous occasions, but Adrian Weckler, in the Irish Independenton 6 July, who stated: "It is very possible that much of the current private-sector fibre rollouts from Eir...and...SIRO [and now Enet] would not [have happened] without the spectre of the National Broadband Plan hovering in the background". He is one of the experts in this field and not exactly a fan of mine. That is what he has said in this regard. Therefore, I would reject the Deputy's comment.

The reality is that by the end of next year the vast majority of villages in Ireland will have up to 1,000 Mbps pure fibre, super fast broadband available to them. That would not have been contemplated 12 months ago. The Deputy said that the winning bidder, whoever that may be, may drag their heels, or that one of them may drag their heels on the roll-out.I will cite the example of the Eir commitment agreement that I have signed. There are quarterly targets set out in it and penalties built into it if the company fails to meet those targets. Whoever the winning bidder or bidders are, they will be tied into similar targets with similar penalties and funding held back until they achieve those targets.

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