Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry. The Minister said "Yes", but the people who live in that enclave of 12 houses are scratching their heads and wondering why, if Eir was so committed to this process, that it passed 12 houses on the same stretch of road. What was that all about? That causes great confusion for many families depending on this scheme.

I am hopeful that we can get to a point where the 100% penetration rate of which the Minister speaks can be achieved. Whatever way the Minister wishes to cut the knife, he is politically exposed on this question. He set out clear targets and it is only right and proper that we interrogate the information that the Minister is providing us.

With all the information we have received in the last 24 hours, I admit that it is taking us some time to try to interpret the correspondence, but I will refer once again to the Minister's document in regard to the 300,000 premises. The document states that the fourth quarter figures for Eir's rural deployment had yet to be verified by the Department, however Eir indicated that it had passed almost 121,000 premises to be identified, of the identified 300,000 premises as of December 2017.

I am merely quoting, for the record, figures that the Minister has provided us with.

The Minister has also provided us with figures on SIRO. He states that SIRO has committed to investing €450 million into providing fibre broadband to 0.5 million regional homes and businesses in 51 towns. As of January of this year, 127,000 fibre-to-the-home connections have been built in 19 towns across the country, with 32 to follow. I welcome this. What I want to ask the Minister - perhaps the Minister or his officials can clarify this to me by email after this debate is over - is whether there is a crossing over. Will we now face a situation where in certain quarters in certain parts of this country one can have the Eir offering, the SIRO offering or any number of offerings? SIRO, which was one of the bidders and which included ESB and which had given a commitment by virtue of the fact that it was part of the tender process, wanted to be part of this national broadband plan and is now getting on with matters within the market. The clarification I am seeking is, how is SIRO managing to provide fibre broadband, with its €450 million investment, to 500,000 regional homes and businesses in 51 towns and why is it that SIRO felt it had to pull out of this process? Is it not the case that SIRO pulled out of this process because as soon as the Minister made the commitment agreement with Eir for 300,000, it was in no way feasible for any other bidder, or any bidder of SIRO's stature, to be able to stay in the competition and it has decided to go it alone? There are still serious questions to be asked of the Minister's handling of this.

The Minister has invested heavily, politically, from a reputational point of view, in delivering this. We all want to give the Minister a chance to do that but I contend that there is increasing scepticism, particularly in those areas which are black spots, and because of the withdrawal of Eir from the process, about the Government's ability to deliver this plan on time and on budget.

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