Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister knows full well what will happen if the take-up does not meet this company's projections. The company will walk away. The Minister has already provided for that. He has indicated that the State will step in and take the stranded asset. It will then be left with the burden of completing it to protect the investment and the customers to whom the Government has already rolled out the service.

We must pick this deal apart bit by bit, look at all the risks and move way from the falsehood employed by the Taoiseach to the effect that the contractor will somehow be on the hook for €2.4 billion. It is clear that it will not be. If the company is not able to recover its capital investment, it will walk away. The Minister has already provided for that. The State will be left to pick up the tab. When one looks at it in the round, it is an exceptionally bad deal and there is potential for further delays. If at some inflection point the contractor walks away, it will take the Minister some time to pick up the pieces and start the roll-out again. None of this seems to have been factored in. This undertaking was entirely based on the belief that this was the only option. The Government has been taking that approach for four years. The fundamentals have changed on so many occasions and the Government has simply proceeded with the same approach, hoping for some other outcome. When one gets into the detail, it beggars belief. It is to be hoped we will able to do that at committee in the next few days and shine some more light on a project that is doomed to failure.

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