Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is no need for the Minister to be sorry.To be fair, I did not realise the Minister has only been in the Department for Communications, Climate Action and Environment for seven months. He has gained an expertise in the area. I have benefitted from his contribution today, because he did not stick to the script, which was quite useful, as it showed he has a great deal of knowledge, much of which has not been in the general public domain, as to how the commercial operations are working or may potentially work.

I will try to be as quick as I can. I attended the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment, as a substitute for my colleague, Senator Terry Leyden, for whom I am covering this afternoon. Fianna Fáil supports the roll-out of the national broadband plan. However, as my colleague, Deputy Timmy Dooley, said in the Dáil, this promise is to deliver the broadband plan to one third fewer homes; to take three times as long to do so as previously envisaged; at six times the original price and at the end of it all, we will not own the network that has been built and paid for or very significantly subsidised at least by the taxpayer. Certainly, it can be argued that the decision has been rushed to generate positive headlines ahead of the local and European elections next week, in spite of genuine and serious concerns raised by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I take the Minister's point about the introduction of free education and I thank him for complimenting my party and the then Minister, Donogh O'Malley, for doing so.

The previous Government of which Deputy Bruton was a member set up the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to monitor public expenditure and reform. It has advised and given direction not to proceed in the way that is being done. The Department has raised specific concerns on the grounds of cost, affordability, value for money and risk. The cost benefit analysis on which the Government has based its decision has been labelled by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform as not credible. An error of €1 billion was found in the cost benefit analysis just weeks before the project was approved. The cost benefit analysis over-estimated the benefits of the plan by €1 billion immediately afterwards. That hardly inspires confidence. The Department's documents also indicate that it was concerned about the level of risk on the part of the State versus the remaining bidder. I listened carefully to the Minister's comments and I will come back to that, but the documents from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform indicate that Granahan McCourt will have completely recouped its investment within the first eight years. The Minister has outlined some of the money issues but we need clarity on the amount of money Granahan McCourt will be investing and making on the deal for the initial outlay of €220 million, which is for infrastructure and working capital. In the context of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's quote of "unprecedented risk to the Exchequer", the decision to push ahead with this plan to win a local election borders on farcical.

Fianna Fáil has a number of serious concerns that must be answered regarding: the credibility of the cost benefit analysis of the plan, which was later queried by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform; the burden of financial and social risk carried by both the bidder and the State regarding the plan; whether this project is in line with the public spending code; and the impact such a plan will have on the national development plan in general. We question the role of Frank McCourt, the financial supporter of Granahan McCourt and his attendance at a meeting that took place in New York. My colleague, Deputy Timmy Dooley, has written to the secretariat of the Joint Committee of Communications, Climate Action and Environment requesting an investigation be carried out. This morning I attended a closed meeting of that committee and it is positive to see there will be a short, timely investigation and examination of where this project is going which will be concluded by the middle of July.

The Fianna Fáil Party is focused on ensuring that national broadband is delivered quickly and for a price which represents value for money to the taxpayer. Our position has been clear throughout. We believe a State-owned company, such as the ESB and I acknowledge the Minister's comment about state aid rules and so on, is the best option for the delivery of broadband to rural Ireland. Deputy Dooley wrote to the former Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment expressing his preference in 2016 and we tabled a proposal in the Dáil, which was supported by a majority in the Dáil in February 2018 and yet the Government failed to examine that option. Documents released by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment have raised issues regarding the use of the ESB but have not ruled out the use of a new entity. No costings of alternative proposals have been published by the Government and none of the documents released indicates that such costings exist.

We are awaiting answers to questions to confirm that the Government did not cost alternatives. Fianna Fáil remains convinced that the State ownership of the infrastructure is possible and will be beneficial for the circa400,000 to 540,000 premises which the Government believes will sign up to the plan. An additional €1.5 billion will have to be found in the national development plan over and above the €800 million already allocated for the plan on top of the additional funding of €385 million required for the children's hospital in the next three years alone. There is no provision anywhere for this funding. Some €500 million has to be found between 2019 and 2022, right when the roll out is meant to start. How is that meant to happen without funds being allocated?

I take the point the Minister made that no other plans will be affected by it, but they must be at least delayed by it, because if one only has a certain amount of money and a load more has to be found for this, a whole lot of other projects will have to be at least delayed or shelved. The Taoiseach has said that there will be no budgetary impact in 2019 and a minimal impact in 2020 but he confirmed there will be a budgetary impact from 2021 onwards. He said the Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, will indicate in the summer economic statement how that funding will be provided for. It is surprising and indeed incredible that the Government thinks it is appropriate to announce it will proceed with the plan without saying how it will be paid for. We also do not know, which the Minister acknowledges, how many homes will be connected in the first phase. The Taoiseach had said that only 10,000 out of 442,000 homes will be connected in the first year. The Minister may have said that it will be 133,000 homes in the first phase-----