Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister can wait his turn. I will try to speak louder and get closer to the microphone. The Minister was a Minister in 2016 but he was not a Fine Gael Minister. I believe he was handed a very difficult task. The Minister accepted that task and, fair dues to him, he had high aspirations about what he could achieve. The Taoiseach at the time probably knew it was a hot potato, so to speak, when he handed it to him and said, "Here. Take it and run with it". However, what has happened in the past 17 years since all those promises were made is a sorry state of affairs. What he has lost now, however, with the withdrawal of Eir, is a very serious player because it controls much of the hardware including poles and so on throughout the countryside, which I believe will be required for the roll-out of broadband. Like Lee Harvey Oswald, the Minister could be the patsy in this situation and might be blamed for something for which he is not responsible. I hope the Fine Gael-led Government is giving him support in that regard because it appears to me that it is a series of disasters. The Minister is now down to one tenderer. All the deadlines were missed and now he has refused to provide a date by which the contract will be awarded. It will take a further three to five years to build the network. The Taoiseach stated recently that the Government would seek to have 75% of homes connected by the end of 2018. Essentially, the Government is abandoning homes where State support is needed.

In his contribution, the Minister said that 900,000 citizens are affected. He further stated that, in addition, the Eir roll-out to 300,000 premises will deliver high-speed broadband to 810,000 people, one third of farms and over 1,000 schools. In respect of farms, the Minister might inform his colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, that it is very difficult for farmers - the Minister has disappeared. He was in his seat one minute and, like a rabbit out of a hat, there is a Minister of State in his place. Without bid or say, he was gone.