Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Where is the Tánaiste? Government figures should come here and speak to us as Opposition spokespersons. As a rural TD, I want those 540,000 households connected. People in Laois-Offaly contact me every day looking for broadband to be rolled out to their houses, and I am sure other Members' constituents contact them. People are travelling to Dublin every day who do not need to. They could work from home or have small businesses beside their own premises. They do not have broadband. They cannot get it, and it is hurting rural Ireland.

We are also about to write a blank cheque. Some 80 people, contractors and direct staff, have been working on behalf of the Department for several years and they are paid to oversee this plan. We still cannot get this tender process in place because it is a legal, financial and logistical mess. It cannot be done. The poles they are going to string the wires on are now owned by a French capitalist, because Fianna Fáil, in the person of the then Minister, Mary O'Rourke, sold them off in 1999. We are now left in a situation where these poles are standing and the taxpayer is going to subsidise the wires on them. Deputy Naughten told us yesterday that we might use the ESB poles, which I suggested a year and a half ago.

We are left in an appalling mess. We have several questions and it is disappointing that we cannot address this in what is supposed to be the national Parliament. I believe that the process is legally flawed. It is legally and financially compromised and the taxpayer is legally and financially compromised. Moreover, this House is politically compromised if it keeps going along with this charade. We need to press the pause button. We need answers from senior people in Government about the viability and legal basis of this process, where we go from here and what we will do. I have put forward alternatives. We need to check out of this process. We need to stop here and now and hear from senior Government people about where this is going. I ask that the Taoiseach comes into the House this evening or tomorrow so that we can address these questions to him.

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