Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The remaining bidder is being left with the best of both worlds. He will get a State subsidy and from what the Minister said he will be allowed to use State infrastructure. I heard what the previous Minister said about Eir. I previously asked to see the legal advice concerning the cherry-picking by Eir of the 300,000 households that were taken out of the broadband plan. I wanted to see the legal advice on State competition rules that said Eir had to be allowed to pick the most commercially lucrative 300,000 households. To date, I have not seen it. If that was the case, the logic would follow that the electricity network in the Dublin area or any of the city areas in the State would have to be sold off to the private market to allow them to operate them because it is commercially viable to do that. Rural areas would then be served by the State or a State-subsidised system. I do not think that argument stands up. Under the current plan the company will own the system after 25 years. The company is stringing the Minister along. The current situation is that he is caught with this.

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