Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I argue that there was a considerable pause. We spent many months deliberating on the issue and exploring alternatives before coming to a Government decision to award preferred bidder status to National Broadband Ireland, NBI. Many months were spent in looking at all of the alternatives. I am curious that Eir is suggesting the project can be delivered for €1 billion. I will be interested to hear what the firm's representatives have to say at the committee today as Eir pulled out of the process. Before pulling out, it made an indicative bid which was slightly higher than that of Granahan McCourt at around €2.7 billion. It seems that the €1 billion bid about which Eir is talking would involve passing homes but not connecting any of them and does not cover maintenance costs for 25 years. Therefore, it would be pretty useless to anyone.

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