Laois Sinn Féin TD slams Varadkar and Government over rural broadband 'mess'
Sinn Féin TD for Laois claims the 'farcical' €3 billion rural broadband scheme delay leaves 25,000 Laois/Offaly households and businesses waiting longer for a high-speed internet connection.
The party's Communications Spokesperson Brian Stanley said the latest delay to the National Broadband Plan, (NBP) announced this week is "the latest in an increasingly farcical process."
The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed on Tuesday that the bill for the plan could be run to €3 billion. Details of the project were due to be unveiled this week but it has now been delayed until after Easter. The original cost was €500 million.
Deputy Stanley says the delay will hit the midland counties.
"As the Cabinet have not signed off on this before Easter, it could now be several months before a decision is made to proceed. This leaves 12,721 households and businesses in Laois and 12,420 in Offaly in a situation where they have no idea when they will have Broadband.
“The NBP was initially announced in 2012. There have been two governments and four ministers responsible for it at that time. We were told by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar that we would have a decision before Easter. Now, we are informed by the Minister that it has been postponed yet again. Following several false starts, the completion of the tender process was then announced to be finalised before Christmas. I have raised this consistently with the Minister and An Taoiseach," Stanley said.
“I was informed by Parlimentary Questions last year that some 80 civil servants and consultants were working on this project on behalf of the Government. The tendering process has been a mess and now we are left in a worse situation. We’ll be on 6 or 7G by the time this government gets around to sorting out the fiasco they have made of the rural broadband scheme.”
“The people of rural parts of Laois/Offaly have waited long enough and I do not believe that this Fine Gael government are treating this situation with the appropriate urgency and seriousness. The absence of Broadband is holding back job creation in both counties," he said in a statement.
Mr Varadkar confirmed the likely cost to the Dáil.
"As you know, the cost including VAT contingencies and so on could be in the region of €3 billion albeit spread over 25 years," said the Taoiseach.