IT’S NET ENOUGH

Td slams Varadkar as rural areas still without broadband coverage

TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar needs to “take responsibilty” for the disastrous national broadband plan which has left thousands in rural counties without proper internet coverage.

More than 540,000 homes and businesses remain without access to high-speed services.

Now the Government is expected to announce a delay to the National Broadband plan that will leave a million people without access until at least 2020.

Fianna Fail’s communications spokesman Timmy Dooley said Mr Varadkar needs to take responsibility for the “tainted and compromised” plan.

He told the Irish Mirror yesterday: “There’s talk about a plan B and I think they need to move to plan B immedi- ately and look at the idea of the State taking a much greater role in the rollout of broadband.

“They need to get to that stage quickly because there are about one million people in 540,000 premises for whom this is a really important piece of infrastructure.

“It’s needed in farms, businesses and homes.”

Mr Dooley said he

Timmy Dooley suspects there have been “orchestrated leaks” as concerns grow over the reported €3billion cost. Meanwhile, an independent auditor is probing if frequent contact between former Communications Minister Denis Naughten and the sole remaining bidder may have compromised the tender. Mr Dooley added: “The Government is going to try and condition us for delays or make excuses for delays and there’s no need.

“The procurement process was flawed. I’ve been telling them that for 14 months. As soon as Siro [Vodafone and ESB fibre broadband joint venture] pulled out it was obvious there was significant problems.

“So it shouldn’t be any surprise and now they’re sort of waking up and I suspect getting ready to blame Denis Naughten alone when the Taoiseach has answered questions on this. And he seemed to believe everything was on track for this when clearly it wasn’t.”

Seamus Boland of Irish Rural Link has estimated about 10,000 potential jobs are being lost in rural Ireland annually without a proper broadband system.