The Taoiseach said the National Broadband Plan 'will not be done cheaply and will not be done quickly'
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has faced questions about his acknowledgement for the first time yesterday that the controversial National Broadband Plan has "ballooned" to a cost of €3 billion.
He said that various ministers have repeated that since 2011, but yesterday that Taoiseach announced the cost of the broadband would be €3 billion. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that back in 2012, when the NBP was announced, only about 20% of homes and business had high speed broadband and that is now up to 75%.Mr Varadker said that the memo brought to Cabinet by then Minister Pat Rabbitte in 2014 was for 1,100 villages and the estimate was for €512m.He said that more work needs to be done and the next step will be for the Government to accept the bid.
He questioned why there is so much secrecy around the project. He asked what the overall cost is estimated to be.He said that in the past 20 years, the Government has invested €40m in roads, €10 billion in a new sewage and water network, but very little has been invested in the communications sector.
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