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

This matter is with the European Commission at the moment. The Commission is assessing our submission in favour of state aid being granted for this project and any other observations that are made by any third parties on whose behalf I cannot speak. That is being assessed by the European Commission as we speak and we will, hopefully, have a positive announcement with regard to state aid clearance in the next couple of weeks.

It is, of course, open to anyone to take a legal challenge and that is why I counsel people who think that an alternative to the national broadband plan could be done less expensively and more quickly. This process has taken a long time. It was a detailed procurement process that was open to challenge all the way. We should not be under any illusions that if we do not go ahead with the national broadband plan, it will mean going back to square one, which will delay this project by three to five years.

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