National broadband plan: Far too many questions unanswered

Yesterday’s statement to the Oireachtas communications committee from Eir chief executive Carolan Lennon that her company could complete the National Broadband Plan for less than €1bn, a third of the figure the State has agreed to invest in the project, and a fifth of the estimated final cost, means the project must be revisited. There simply is no alternative if the public purse is to be protected, as it must be.

The Department of Communications, responding to Ms Lennon’s claim, pointed out that an Eir bid from September 2017 was “multiples of €1bn”. That may well be the case but that alone does not even begin to ally the growing concerns around this project, one that looks ever more like another expensive, runaway white elephant.