Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State's last remark is unwarranted. He compared the roll-out of the vaccination programme to the debacle that we are talking about today. The goals of the NBP are laudable, but on every level, it fails at every metric. It is a disgrace. Most citizens feel that they are being bled, as if they are some kind of gombeens, for more than €3 billion of taxpayers' money through a series of convoluted company and corporate structures that hoodwink us into believing that, somehow, this will be done quickly and efficiently. In 2010, the Minister of State's colleague, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, announced the roll-out of a broadband plan with great aplomb. It is 2022 and we are witnessing a debacle with the roll-out of that plan.

In 2019, when the Government announced that it would go down the path it took, it met with fierce resistance from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, on the basis of cost, affordability, value for money and Exchequer risks. It expressed concern that the State would not own the infrastructure after this €3 billion investment and the work is completed. How can the Minister of State stand over this politically? I am not asking him to answer with legal niceties. I am asking a political question about how he, as a Green Party Minister of State, can stand over the robbery of taxpayers' money to this extent without delivering a service.

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