Dáil debates

Wednesday, 23 October 2019

Public Ownership of the National Broadband Network: Motion [Private Members]

 

4:35 pm

Photo of Lisa ChambersLisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Broadband is an essential tool for everyday life but many rural communities are without access to adequate broadband in 2019. This is despite Fine Gael's promise to deliver broadband to everyone by 2015, the first of many broken promises. That was four years ago. The national broadband plan has failed utterly. A contract has not even been signed with a provider. Once again, Fine Gael is hoping to announce, announce and reannounce while failing to deliver. The deadline keeps moving. Some 85% of homes were supposed to be connected by 2018. That commitment has not been delivered. We know now that not a single metre of fibre will be rolled out in 2019 but nobody is surprised. There is yet another delay. Why is rural Ireland left at the back of the queue by this Government time and time again?

People can see the lack of local services and investment and the impact this has on their lives and for themselves. It might come as a surprise to the Minister that the north-west region has been downgraded to a region in development by the European Commission while the rest of the country is considered developed. We are now officially a developing region in a First World country in 2019. There was no alarm on the part of the Government, no sense of urgency and no reaction whatsoever. Where is the Minister's sense of urgency in addressing the infrastructure deficit in Mayo and the north west? How much longer are we supposed to wait for the Government to get its act together?

The plan was initially intended to cost €800 million, which for everybody outside of Fine Gael is a lot of money. However, as with every other major capital project managed by Fine Gael in government, there have been massive overruns and the Government has spent and spent. Fine Gael has basically lost millions of euro of taxpayers' money because it simply cannot stick to budgets or properly plan capital projects. We now need an additional €1.3 billion to roll out a project that was supposed to cost €800 million. That is more than double the initial cost, and more than the entirety of the fiscal space available to this country in 2020.

It is a colossal overspend that Fine Gael considered to be nothing. Is there no alarm in the Government benches at this massive reckless overspending once again on a major capital project? The Taoiseach told the House that this will not impact on services and will have no budget implications. How is that possible? How can the Government overspend by €1.3 in the coming years without having any implication on services? Is it planning on pulling the extra €1.3 billion out of a sock somewhere?

We get the same line with the national children's hospital, another major capital project that has gone millions of euro over budget. Initially supposed to cost approximately €650 million, we now know the cost is €1.7 billion and rising. That is an overspend of €1.1 billion. It will be the most expensive hospital build anywhere in the country. It speaks to the fairy-tale economics practised by Fine Gael, the massive overspends and telling the country, "It's okay. It's not our money. We'll spend it anyway."

We can see the impact of this overspend in services throughout the country. The Minister needs to do what he needs to do to ensure this project gets signed and comes in on time.

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