SF say ESB should get National Broadband Contract

Sinn Féin will move a Dáil motion calling for the ESB to be appointed to deliver the National Broadband Plan.
The party says the plan is flawed and won’t deliver high speed broadband to everyone who needs it.
Both Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil have hit out at the National Broadband Plan saying it’s flawed and they would do it differently.
Now Sinn Féin will put down a Dáil motion calling for the ESB to be appointed to deliver the contract.
The government has said this would run afoul of state aid rules and a new procurement process is needed.
But this motion is more designed to put pressure on Fianna Fáil.
Micheál Martin has said he’d like an agency set up within the ESB to deliver the plan – and now will have to either back the Sinn Féin motion going against the government, or row back on his previous idea.
It means the row over the way forward for the broadband plan will continue into next week, as the local and European elections loom