Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We heard about the current status of the national broadband plan from officials of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment at the Committee of Public Accounts last week. The plan and the extremely faulty process associated with it have been subject to questions and concerns. Those questions have yielded few answers to date. The provision of effective and affordable broadband services across the country is, of course, a priority. We are, however, yet to be convinced that the provision of such services will be done in a cost-effective, transparent and sustainable way.

Serious concerns have been raised about the ability of the single remaining bidder, a consortium led by a US investment fund, to deliver on the project in the medium and long term. As a country, we are proposing to heavily subsidise the construction of a network that the private sector will then own. The same consortium, Enet, managed the metropolitan area networks, MANs, contract up to relatively recently. During that time, there was an absence of price transparency and we had some of the most expensive broadband in Europe. We cannot afford to heavily subsidise infrastructure only to find that it is underused.

While we were initially told the cost of the national broadband plan would be around €500 million, the Government and departmental officials have now conceded that the ultimate cost will be multiples of that figure. I expect the Tánaiste will respond with arguments about the importance of servicing rural Ireland. Will he guarantee that rural Ireland will not suffer as a result of initiatives being removed from Project Ireland 2040 to pay for the national broadband plan? The lack of competitive tension in the process, with only one remaining bidder, raises the question of whether the Government is certain the process is robust. If it proceeds, will it be the best possible deal? Is there a plan B or are we likely to be bounced into something that looks like it will cost billions rather than hundreds of millions of euro purely because we have supposedly gone too far in a flawed process? This smacks of lessons not having been learned from the national children's hospital shambles.

The Taoiseach has previously warned that the national broadband plan may not proceed if there is a no-deal Brexit. We all hope such a scenario will not arise. If the national broadband plan is a casualty of a no-deal Brexit, could that mean, given its importance, that Project Ireland 2040 will require a complete revision? How much has been set aside in Project Ireland 2040 for the national broadband plan? I ask that question given the Government has conceded that the national broadband plan will cost multiples of €500 million. From where is the extra money likely to come? What other projects earmarked in Project Ireland 2040 are likely to suffer as a result of the significant extra funding that will be required?

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