Results 14,661-14,680 of 32,643 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: With regard to the-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I do not believe so. I believe that when the contract is signed, it will give us legal protection on that.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: It will be if and when a contract is signed. A key part of the figure being high is because of all of the contingent subsidies that are built into the contract to deal with the different risks identified by the Deputy.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: When the contract is signed.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: When we get to the final point of the decision being made in terms of signing the contract, it will have to deliver the certainty I have described to the committee.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: It will be-----
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: That particular matter is one the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment might be better equipped to answer in terms of its detail but my understanding is that the majority of it will come from revenue streams and the contribution the consortium will make. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, answered questions about this matter at the communications committee.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I just said "revenue streams". As the Deputy knows, a charge will be made for access.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: It will be up to the consortium to meet the figures required to deliver the project.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I believe there is and that the Minister, Deputy Bruton, has stated he will make as much of it available publicly as he can.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: To ensure the various criteria I have outlined to the committee are met.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: Responsibility for the negotiation of the nitty-gritty of the contract sits with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment because it is the tendering Department. Our role will be to ensure, as the work progresses, that we are satisfied that it is progressing in line with two considerations - the public spending code and the assumptions laid out in the cost-benefit...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: At that point, the State will have the ability to step in, if it so wishes. If it believes certain criteria have been met, we will have the ability to step in and acquire what is in place. The key point is that, if the contract has been fulfilled by that stage, 100,000 homes will have been connected to broadband per year. This relates to the point I teased out with Deputy Stanley. Given...
- 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: The Deputy will know that a detailed letter was sent back by the Secretary General of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Mr. Mark Griffin. As to whether compensation would be due at that point, my judgment is that it would probably be unlikely if we were stepping in to acquire the network, but I will revert to the committee with a more detailed note on the issue.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I read the transcript of the Deputy's dialogue with the Minister on this matter. The Minister told the Deputy that there would be current expenditure commitments, primarily in respect of oversight of the contract, that his Department would have to meet. He outlined the figures for the Deputy.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: That is not the contract figure. It is up to €3 billion, as I have described.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: That is correct, but for other reasons I have become highly sceptical of projects that have the lure of being off the State's balance sheet.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: To answer each of the Deputy's questions in turn, the officials whom he has justifiably praised for their work are the same ones who are making the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment's recommendation that we go ahead with this approach. They are the same people who have weighed all of the different approaches and reached the conclusion that this is the best way to...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: National Broadband Plan: Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (28 May 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: The Deputy would tell me that we were seeking to own an extension to a broadband network that we did not own, which would mean that the very risk all of the committee's members are justifiably raising with me would sit with the State. We would carry all of it. Part of the questions colleagues are understandably putting to me has to do with the risk involved. If this asset was to be State...