Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My impatience was not with the Minister's appropriate due diligence in regard to the signing of the contract. It was the fact that he rushed to the pulpit at the first possible opportunity, right in the throes of an election, to announce that he had conferred preferred bidder status on the only bidder that has been in existence for 15 months and so it would not be lost on the general public and the people who are waiting for broadband that this is not at all a done deal and that he still has an awful lot of i's to dot and t's to cross along the way. It speaks to the way in which this Government attempts to spin information. While I am not suggesting the Minister does that, there is an effort to spin and to give the impression that all is well and good and that all is ready to happen. In truth, however, when we lift the bonnet, we realise there is a hell of a lot more detail required and a hell of a lot more work to be done. It would be appropriate that the Minister would at least accept that, which I think he has done in his previous contribution.

See this speech in context