Results 14,821-14,840 of 20,131 for speaker:Brian Stanley
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: With respect, they are in place and are appointed by the company. I asked this at the private meeting in the Department the other day. They are appointed by the consortium. If they are appointed by the consortium, they are there to represent the interests of the consortium. If I was part of the consortium and I put eight representatives on the board, I would be clear about who they were...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: I am asking the Department officials what they have at this stage from Granahan McCourt and the consortium in terms of guarantees that the money is in place. Is it simply a letter of commitment that the Department has?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: Is that all the Department has?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: Is that guarantee written into the contract?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: Is it at this point? Is it written into the contract or draft documents today?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: I know it is not, but is it written in? The Department is drafting it at the moment.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: We have a complex process judging from the diagram the Department officials produced the other day. It is overseen by the board of National Broadband Ireland, which has one member representing the taxpayer. We have a letter. The only thing we have from a private investor is a letter of commitment at this stage in the process. We are three years into it.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: I remember the Department officials and the Minister telling us that they had John Laing and SSE on board as well as all the financial firepower behind the project. Now, it has all evaporated like a ball of smoke. What we are left with now is a letter from a new company, one we are only hearing about this week. Those are the facts. Can we move on?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: Two companies pulled out in 2017. After that the Department drew up two contingency plans. I want to move on to that. In his opening statement, Mr. Ó hÓbáin pointed out that the Department investigated the need for a plan B. The Department published two contingency reports, one in 2018 and another in 2019. Both reports concluded there were viable State-led alternatives...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: We now know that the chosen model requires a subsidy to the tune of €1 billion for the rental of the poles. The Minister said it would cost €1 billion but Mr. Ó hÓbáin said today that it would cost €0.9 billion over 25 years in rent. If the ESB model had been used, the infrastructure would have been in place. The taxpayers will subsidise the project to...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: I asked a straight question. Am I correct?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: The ESB network is in very good condition in terms of its pole structures and ducting. One can see when one drives around the country that a lot of Eir's poles are falling over into ditches and there has been very little investment in the basic infrastructure since it was privatised in 1999. First, Eir has got the 300,000 easiest to reach and most profitable households that banjaxed this...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: That is correct.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: Given that the former Minister had had numerous meetings with the representatives of the consortium at that stage and the main investor, or who we thought was the main investor - it was David McCourt at that point - was it not the case that the whole process was in a very precarious state? Obviously Mr. McCourt had to be kept in the game because it was the only show in town. Was it not the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: I wish to ask one simple question.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: I wish to ask one question.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (22 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: We started out with a benchmark of €800 million or €0.8 billion for this project and the Minister stood up in the Chamber week after week to tell us the sum would cover the delivery of fibre broadband to every home, farm and business in the State. It has now been clarified that the Government and the Department have moved away from that. Even though there is not going to be...
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Post Office Network (21 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: I am well aware of the situation An Post was in two or three years ago. Members from all across the Chamber supported a number of measures in this House to try and retrieve the situation. An Post got a financial injection from the Government to modernise. The protection of the post office network is within the terms of the partnership Government. That is fine but what is happening here...
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Post Office Network (21 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: All of those services will have to fit into the new An Post premises in Connolly Street in Mountmellick. Sinn Féin supports the modernisation of the network and the provision of additional services through the post office network. Sinn Féin has put forward various proposals for that over the past ten or 15 years and supported the general thrust of that notion. There is no...
- Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Post Office Network (21 May 2019)
Brian Stanley: 57. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his views regarding the relocation of post offices from town centres to the outer fringes of towns and thereby accelerating the doughnut effect of towns. [21705/19]