Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We came in here to ask a series of questions, primarily on the future of the national broadband plan, which is the most important piece of national infrastructure that has yet to be put in place for rural Ireland. It has been many years in gestation. Like others, I believe that it was a mistake to allow 300,000 premises to be taken out of the package to be provided under the plan. This meant that the viability of the plan was fundamentally undermined by a Government decision. It led fairly smartly to the withdrawal of number of serious telecommunications companies that had plans to bid for that package. We had the unacceptable situation of only having one bidder and an ongoing pretence that this was somehow still a competitive process.

This was further undermined when the composition of the lead bidder kept changing and many serious issues arose, some of which I posed to the Tánaiste this morning. I refer to issues around Enet's move from being the lead bidder to being a supplier and ownership moving from the lead bidder to the State.

These questions remain unanswered. What we have had here this afternoon is something much more dramatic, which is, in essence, a resignation speech from the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the likes of which I have not heard before. It was much more akin to the resignation speeches we are used to hearing in the House of Commons, from people such as Boris Johnson coming in to explain the lack of confidence he had in the Prime Minister in that instance and the Prime Minister in him.

A telling phrase was used by Deputy Naughten in what amounted to his resignation speech. Nobody on the Opposition benches called for his resignation and yet he did not feel he had the confidence of the Taoiseach. His assessment was that this was more to do with opinion polls than telecoms poles that might bring broadband into the homes of rural Ireland. These are very telling phrases from a Member of the Government up to that point in time. A reasonable request is being made by Members that the Taoiseach come into the House to explain how the NBP, one of the most important structural and infrastructural projects still to be addressed, will be implemented and advanced. He needs to explain this to us, if possible, this afternoon. I do not know about the his availability. I certainly believe what has transpired in the past short while, when those of us in opposition came to ask questions about the future of this vital infrastructure and for the Minister responsible to simply announce his resignation and leave the House, means it has been an extraordinary day even in the extraordinary annals of this particular Dáil.

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