Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Using schools as an example of the tendering process was a bad choice on the Minister's part given the recent debacle of what happened in the previous such tendering.

I would like the Minister to comment on the competitive tendering process itself. The Minister states it provides the best value for the public. It is cheaper and more efficient, we are told, than to get a public utility company or a semi-State company to build it. Would the Minister acknowledge that we made a bags of that and a contract that was supposed to cost €500 million now looks likely to cost us over €2 billion?

When the dust settles on this farce and the State is on the hook for €2 billion plus, at the end of this rainbow will we see a notorious character, Mr. Denis O'Brien, who came very lately into the bidding process, who may well be the biggest benefactor of all of this debacle, more so than the 750,000 people who are waiting to receive broadband?

Lastly, what was the role, if any, of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, in all of this?

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