Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies. I have no problem with scrutiny from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. That is its job, just as it is the job of the Oireachtas to ask challenging questions. I do not know if they set any store by the assurances of Ministers, but I can assure Members that long before I was part of this process my officials did voluminous amounts of work to evaluate the alternatives. We examined whether we could do this more cheaply, unbundle the work, carry it out through State agencies or use the ESB. All of these alternatives were assessed. In every case it was objectively found that the alternatives would create greater costs, impose a longer delay or cause the State greater uncertainties and risk. We have chosen what I believe is the most cost-effective approach. I do not dispute that it is expensive, but it is a cost that will be incurred over 25 years. We are designing something to be operated for 25 years with some level of State support and to continue on its own two feet for the following ten years and well beyond.

People did not like me drawing parallels with free education. However, I am absolutely convinced that although it is right to ask all these hard questions, when we reflect on this decision we will see it as the correct one. By providing fibre to premises in rural Ireland we will underpin our ambitions for rural Ireland with connectivity. Its citizens will be able to live a lifestyle that is fully participative in the transformation that digital technology provides. This will allow them to lead a more resilient and better-adjusted life, with more working from home, more connectivity and more access to e-health and digital public services. People will regard this as the correct decision. However, we are right to scrutinise this now. There is no doubt that people scrutinised free education, though now we might ask how we could fail to commit to free education for our people. I have no problem with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform taking a sceptical approach to this. That is its job and it is for Departments like my own to look at the challenges and set out the vision.

4 o’clock

The Government has to make that decision. If it were to be made by experts, we would not have this Chamber, as decisions would be made by them and they would not be accountable to us. We value democracy. We value a process whereby people like me sit around with 15 colleagues to make such decisions and are accountable to the House. Tomorrow, one of the Members opposite might be in my seat and I will be asking the questions. I assure Members that I spent most of my political life over there asking the questions. The process we have is robust and the project is robust. I look forward to meeting with Deputies in whatever format is chosen to try to win the argument among my peers.

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