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The Minister of Finance and Public Expenditure discussed the possibility of redefining the priorities of the funds in the National Development Plan (NDP) if additional spending was needed to provide broadband to more than 500,000 households and businesses across the country .
Paschal Donohoe also said at the Minister's meeting in Dáil this afternoon that the allocation of additional resources to the NDP could provide the necessary funding for the National Broadband Plan (NBP).
His comments follow the publication of a report that concluded that the NBP procurement process had not been tainted by contacts between former Communications Minister Denis Naughten, and the lead bidder, David McCourt.
Read more: The review reveals that the process of calling broadband offers is not influenced by Naughten or McCourt
Mr. Donohoe said that a funding decision would only be made once the evaluation of the tender call completed in the coming weeks.
Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen asked Donohoe about the cost of the NBP and if it were to exceed the € 275 million allocated, could the NDP foresee that?
The minister said that the NDP recognized that the amount of funding could increase and that we would have to make a decision on that.
He added: "If additional funds are needed under the National Broadband Plan, they can come from two different regions.
"Assuming we do not increase our level of taxation or borrow more to pay for existing infrastructure commitments, the government has two options to choose from.
"The first choice is to make the decision to invest more money in the national plan for broadband and the national development plan.
"This will have an opportunity cost and it would mean that there will be other things for which money can not be used."
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