Details sought on final cost of National Broadband Plan

Details of the cost of delivery of the National Broadband Plan were sought in the Dáil by Labour Deputy Seán Sherlock.

Given that a decision is due in a matter of weeks, he said there must be some assessment at this stage of the cost and of the likelihood of there being a successful bidder.

“In other words, the people want to know whether Granahan McCourt will end up being the final bidder and, ultimately, whether they will end up paying a king’s ransom through their taxes for the privilege of having Granahan McCourt as the successful bidder,” he said. “We have reached endgame on this one. We are sick of being told that it is a matter of the tender process and it is secretive.

“What we want at this stage is for the primacy of Parliament to be recognised and for there to be some straight answers from Government in recognition of and out of respect for our mandates. A figure of €3 billion is in the public domain as a potential cost.”

In reply, Minister Richard Bruton said that since the final tender was submitted in September the State has been seeking to protect the taxpayer. “Every element of this is being gone through with a fine toothcomb to ensure that to the best of our ability we can present to Government a robust test to protect the taxpayer,” he said. “That still may not meet the criterion. It still may not be accepted, and I am not saying it is.

“I can assure the Deputy that what is going on now is that detailed eye-to-eye work or fist-to-fist work, whatever way the Deputy would like to take it, to reach an agreement that is robust and that I can bring to Cabinet.”