Results 8,781-8,800 of 10,577 for speaker:Barry Cowen
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: It is on that very point.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: However, the Department is now investigating that. It is now engaging in a process of informing the public as to why it believes that contention cannot be delivered. Why did we have to wait until now for that to be the case? I would have thought there was ample opportunity between the Minister, departmental officials and whomever else was privy to the information that came in the letter on...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: In the meantime, Eir has invested €150 million in mobile 4G. It has made announcements about 750 jobs in the region. It has talked about, I believe, two new apprenticeship programmes. I am sure there were Ministers and Departments all over those items. Great credence was given and great assistance afforded to Eir for that to be delivered. Of course, we welcome that in the economy....
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: At the same time, the national development plan is being ripped to shreds on other projects.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: That is-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: Did those who have responsibility in this area who are acting in the best interests of the public and the taxpayer not think to say, "Hold on a second, let's call these boys back in and put this to bed one way or another."? That should have been done in case Mr. Griffin or any of his colleagues was ever faced by us, who are elected to ensure the taxpayers get value for money, and asked about...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: Mr. Griffin is talking to me about the state aid rules. I am just saying that there was differing opinion on the contention that he and his colleagues made earlier. As Deputy Stanley said-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: -----it might have been more convincing for me if I had a note from the Commission to confirm that.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: Eir had a different opinion about the Department's interpretation about what the state aid rules that governed this were. It meant that it had walked away from it. We can go back and check what was said.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: On which it had a different interpretation or different legal advice from what the Department was telling it was its interpretation.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: Yes.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: I will check, but I do not necessarily agree that that is the case in the way in which it has been delivered. The point I am making is that the letter was sitting on someone's desk. On whose desk was it? If it was sent to the then Minister, did he contact his officials? As a colleague of Mr. Griffin's in another Department said, this has a knock-on effect on other capital development...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: That is as I would expect and I appreciate that the Department did so.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: At a fraction of the cost.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: Why not tell it that? Why not have it on the record in order that it could be presented to us that Eir had made that contention and the Department did not agree with it based on A, B, and C, that the Department had met Eir and gone through them? The record will show that there was no response. It does not tell me or nobody has told me whom the then Minister contacted after receiving the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: I do not dispute that, but why was the letter not responded to to make that point? Why do I have to depend on Mr. Griffin’s word that that was the case?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: Did he-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: In that correspondence the then Minister did not reference the point made, namely, that if we were to step outside the way in which the Department wanted the State to do it, if it were to be done in a different way, it could be delivered at a fraction of the cost. There was nothing in writing to refute this.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: That may well be the case-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2019)
Barry Cowen: It was incumbent on whoever had responsibility to categorically state it in response rather than leaving it hang. It was left to hang and has been added now by virtue of a figure being put on it, in addition to the fact that the 300,000 premises are now more or less dealt with. There is much more information and knowledge on how the project can be delivered. That also comes into play....