“A national solution to a national problem.” That is how the Taoiseach describes the National Broadband Plan (NBP).

A €3bn rural broadband plan to “end the digital divide” has been agreed but faces the prospect of a legal challenge.

The Regional Internet Service Providers Association (RISPA) claims it could deliver an alternative to the National Broadband Plan for just over €400m.

The government has nothing to hide in relation to the €3bn National Broadband Plan and will explain its decision and the project costs in due course, the Tánaiste says.

Opposition calls to renationalise the former state telephone company, Eir, and have it run the National Broadband Plan would cost up to €9 billion, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Fianna Fáil has claimed the consortium behind the Government's broadband project may be planning to hit households with new charges to fill its own funding gap, before selling the contract onto another firm who will hike prices even further.

Minister for Communications Richard Bruton has said that the National Broadband Plan is the cheapest and most effective option for the provision of broadband.

He said that the National Development Plan and the National Broadband Plan contradicted each other with one encouraging more focus on villages and towns with the other offering “one for everyone in the audience.”

The consortium behind the Government’s multi-billion euro national broadband plan will be “entirely on the hook” to pay any extra costs if the project continues to surge over-budget.

Sinn Féin will move a Dáil motion calling on the ESB to be appointed to deliver the National Broadband Plan.

The Communications Minister has also refused to say how much of the €5bn broadband rollout cost will be footed by rural homeowners and businesses.

Fianna Fáil has hit out at the Government for now spending almost €10bn on three projects that are all billions over budget.

Former Minister for Communications Denis Naughten has warned that if the proposed National Broadband Plan falters between now and the signing of the contract he does not believe that there will ever be high-speed broadband in rural Ireland.

A Dáil committee is to ask Department of Public Expenditure secretary general Robert Watt for an unredacted version of his broadband cost warnings amid growing fears over the potential impact of the plan.

An independent report on the contentious broadband plan will be delayed until after the local and European elections amid claims it could unfairly impact on the votes.

Economist John Fitzgerald has said that the Government should “go back and look at the broadband plan again.”

The civil servant overseeing the broadband plan has strongly defended the project, insisting that any decision to halt it would “likely result in the marginalisation of rural communities.”

The three best "plan B" alternatives to the Government's €3bn national broadband plan will cost more, take longer to put in place and leave up to half of households without high-speed internet access.

A top academic says that there should be more oversight of the National Broadband Plan with strict penalties if targets are not reached.

The Government has agreed a €3bn plan to roll out high-speed broadband to over 540,000 homes and premises in rural Ireland over the next seven years.

The Cabinet is expected to approve the final bidder for the contract to roll out high-speed broadband across the country at its meeting today.

The Taoiseach has confirmed the cost of the National Broadband Plan could be around €3 billion.

A further delay in agreeing a broadband solution for more than half a million homes and premises has been deemed another blow for rural Ireland.

The Taoiseach has cast fresh doubt over the National Broadband Plan after confirming the cost of delivering a high-speed internet service will be "many multiples" of what was budgeted.

The Communications Minister added that a huge amount of investigation has gone into the final tendering process of the National Broadband Plan.

Former Minister for Communications, Denis Naughten, has hit out by the lack of support he got from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar ahead of being asked to consider his position.

Former Minister for Communications Denis Naughten says that his main objective during meetings with US businessman David McCourt was that his consortium Granahan- McCourt remained a bidder for the National Broadband Plan.

The then minister’s trip to New York earlier this year has come under scrutiny, more so with the release of redacted WhatsApp comments, writes Daniel McConnell.

The Government-backed investigation into the Denis Naughten broadband lobbying crisis has been labelled a whitewash after it cleared him of wrongdoing despite having to “rely” on his own word to draw the conclusion.

Explanations about meetings between former communications minister Denis Naughten and a lead bidder in the broadband plan do “not stack up” and more answers are needed on the stalled project, says Fianna Fáil.

Ex-communications minister Denis Naughten has broken his silence on the broadband meetings controversy which forced him to resign from office, saying he has been cleared by the Government report into the scandal.

The Government should take back control of plans for a national broadband network says economics lecturer Donal Palcic.

The Taoiseach says the report into the National Broadband Plan procurement process will be published in a matter of days.

The firm that runs Irish Water should take control of the National Broadband Plan, according to Fianna Fáil.

The communications minister has refused to give any commitment on when rural broadband will be delivered.

The independent auditor reviewing the National Broadband Plan is to examine new documents that have emerged from the Department of Communications.

Over the years this country has gone from one scandal to the next where governing politicians have been embroiled in various controversies, with some of these being the subject of expensive tribunals of investigation.

Latest: Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has written to the Taoiseach telling him that it would be best that they "both agree not to bring down the government".

Communications Minister Denis Naughten has resigned from cabinet over revelations he met three times with the only bidder still in the national broadband plan process.

The Taoiseach has defended the Communications Minister's meetings with a businessman involved in the consortium bidding for the tender for the National Broadband Plan which is worth over €500m.

Communications Minister Denis Naughten has been accused of "contaminating" the tendering process of the multi-million national broadband contract.

Communications Minister Denis Naughten will not bow to calls to make a statement in the Dáil to clarify his dinner with US businessman David McCourt in New York.

Cork is primed to “capture future waves of foreign direct investment” but must improve its infrastructure to combat fierce competition from abroad.

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is set to examine the Government’s new national broadband plan tender process after it emerged just one bidder — a consortium involving businessman Denis O’Brien and others — now remains in the race.

The sole bidder for the long-mooted National Broadband Plan says it has submitted a final tender for the project, six years after the vision was first mooted by the former coalition government.

The Taoiseach is “very confident” that the roll-out of rural broadband will not be delayed despite SSE’s decision to pull out of the project.

Aspirational rhetoric and reality have again collided in a soberingly Irish way.

The Government’s long-delayed national broadband plan could be open to a legal challenge because of SSE’s decision to pull out of the deal.

Fianna Fail says the viability of the National Broadband Plan is now under threat.

There are reports tonight that SSE has pulled out of the tendering process for the National Broadband Plan.