State going ahead with broadband strategy

The Government has vowed to drive ahead with the embattled national broadband plan despite concerns about value for money and calls for the State to take control of the strategy.

A crisis has hit the rural broadband plan after Eir, one of the two tenderers for the project, withdrew this week. Homes and businesses desperate for high-speed internet are angry at the withdrawal.

In the Dáil yesterday, Tánaiste Simon Coveney was forced to defend the plan to connect more than half a million premises with only one bidder, Enet, left in the running for the massive broadband deal.