Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 December 2021
142. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the number of instances in which the State has relied on legal enforcement of the National Broadband Plan contract since it was signed to date. [61576/21]
View answerTo protect the State investment and ensure that the NBP milestones and deliverables are met, the NBP contract has been designed to include extensive protections, quality checks, reporting and monitoring obligations. The Department, as the contracting authority, manages all of the elements of contract governance. The Department has a core existing team, which is augmented by specialist external services to effectively manage the contract. These include technical, commercial advisory, business process and legal services. A governance structure has been established within the Department to monitor contract compliance and a suite of processes have been developed to manage the contract. These include the active monitoring and tracking of compliance on an ongoing basis. To date, no circumstances have arisen that required recourse to legal enforcement measures.
