Results 15,021-15,040 of 32,961 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I have a pretty clear idea of my responsibilities. While I have been answering the Deputy's questions, I have received some material on his question about fibre optic technologies and it backs up the point I made a moment ago. SIRO is a venture involving ESB and Vodafone and it uses fibre optic technology to expand and upgrade its existing rural network, which will reach 300,000 premises....
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: Fibre optic technology is also being rolled out in many other European states.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I reiterate what I said a moment ago. Fibre optic is the technology choice being used to upgrade our existing broadband network. The Deputy opened his contribution by saying that he was a committed believer in universal public services and 100% coverage. Plan Z did not deliver 100% coverage.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: It did not deliver it. I have no doubt that if I was before the committee advocating plan Z, the Deputy Broughan would castigate me for not delivering universal coverage.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: Given that the contract will not have been signed-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I will give my view on it but the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, is best placed to definitively answer that. I imagine that although the consortium is the preferred bidder, we do not have any significant commitments to the consortium until the contract is signed. The Minister, Deputy Bruton,-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: It is an ongoing procurement process. I do not believe we would have any significant commitment to the bidder until the procurement process has concluded.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I think I am answering the question with the best knowledge that is available to me.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I will have to come back to the Chairman with that.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: No, it was on work done by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment as well as my Department.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I guess the key part is the insights used in the entire procurement process informed the options that were put to me. Anyway, I know from the fact that my Department was involved in this that we formed independent views regarding the pros and cons of the different options.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: No, that is not correct. What happened is that the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and then my Department were involved in this at three different points. We looked at the policy options available that were different from the course of action we were on.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: Those policy options and our ability to implement them were informed by our experience of the procurement process, as Deputy Cowen has acknowledged. It was not the case that the bidder was able to influence the other options. What would have been the benefit to the bidder in doing that?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: We examined all the different policies that could have been alternatively pursued. Are they as detailed as the final proposition in front of us?
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: No, they are not, because this has followed a tendering process. However, they are sufficiently detailed to form a view on whether they would work.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: No, I disagree with that. They are all options laid out in the document I referred to earlier.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I guess the answer to that unfolds if we look at the document we published. It goes through the alternative options available. I do not believe we could describe those options as high level. We went through the different options open to the Government, including using the ESB and purchasing other companies. On the basis of that, an evaluation has been made.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I categorically reject the idea that a Government or Department would allow alternative options to be generated by someone involved in the bidding process. That is wrong. As the Deputy said, why would that be in the interests of the other bidders? Why would an entire Department overseeing the process, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, require a bidder to...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: Yes.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: It is certainly a consideration in state aid rules.