Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for that clarity. The final line in the Minister's written statement is that he expects to bring a recommendation to Government on the national broadband plan in the coming weeks. I take it that will be influenced to a large extent by the discussions or presentations from the companies concerned to the Department on the impact of their announcements on the intervention area. I can assume that is the case.

If the intervention area is to change significantly, then the position is absolutely clear. If the 120,000 homes that are still not covered by any of the commercial operators are to be facilitated, then the cost effectively remains the same. This is because of the need to roll out high-speed broadband to the areas concerned. It is effectively the same network that we will have to roll out so the cost per household goes up significantly. Does the Minister accept this is a factor or at least that it comes about as a result of the tardiness of this Government and the previous Government in reaching a decision and failing to roll out the service? As a result of tardiness and delay we are now left with a situation whereby we are effectively going to have to pay the same amount of money to cover far fewer homes.

The public private partnership that was envisaged as part of the national broadband plan bidding process recognised that in addition to the State subvention there would be a revenue return from customer uptake.

If the cherry-picking has been done, given the two announcements, it is going to put a much greater liability on the State and delay further the roll-out of high-speed broadband to those homes.

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