Broadband plan set to be record-sized State agreement

Good morning and welcome to the first Politics Digest of the new political term, which will take us all the way to the middle of July. Sure it’ll be summer by then.

The Dáil returns today, but Ministers were back for Cabinet yesterday when they approved, as expected, the decision sought by Minister for Communications Richard Bruton to award preferred-bidder status to the National Broadband Ireland consortium led by the US businessman David McCourt.

It means the plan to provide broadband connections to 540,000 homes and businesses not served by the commercial operators will go ahead - with the cost to the State capped at €3 billion. Once the 1,500-page contract is signed - expected to happen in about six months - it will be the biggest commercial agreement the State has ever entered into.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was in visionary form at the announcement yesterday, declaring the project was the equivalent of rural electrification. For Bruton, broadband was like power or water. Michael Ring declared “nobody could object to a bit of broadband for rural Ireland”.

Government pledges to deliver broadband within seven years

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Consortium led by David McCourt given preferred bidder status for broadband plan

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Former deputy leader of Alliance Party Seamus Close (71) has died

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Alas, the reception in the newspaper front pages this morning is lukewarm at best.”Giving away €3bn network ‘is the cheapest option’” howls the Daily Mail.

For people waiting for broadband in remote areas, the decision is great news. But the Government does not know how many of them there are. It knows there are over a million people living in these areas, but it does not know how many of them want broadband, or want this particular type of broadband brought to the door. In that respect at least, the benefits of the plan are uncertain.

For the Government there are political reasons, social reasons and economic reasons to go ahead. The Opposition focused on the first of these, declaring the announcement was designed to set Fine Gael candidates in rural areas up for the local elections in two weeks. They were careful, however, not to rubbish the idea of bringing broadband to rural areas.

Ultimately, Ministers were convinced by the Department of Communications, which insisted any other model of providing 100 per cent coverage would be just as expensive, and possibly more so.

Although the costs were vastly more than the Government envisaged, abandoning the project, or even starting again, was not deemed politically realistic. Our lead story is here.

An analysis and explainer is here and here. And no less a contributor than Varadkar has an oped on the subject on our pages.

The issue is sure to be raised with the same Mr Varadkar in the Dáil today.

Mood music more upbeat in North talks

The talks at Stormont aimed at reviving the Northern power-sharing institutions got under way yesterday, and the mood music was more upbeat than the previews might have suggested.

Sinn Féin said the disagreements are “resolvable”. The DUP said it “wouldn’t be found wanting”. Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney hailed a “positive start”, although he added there was clearly a long way to go. That’s an understatement.

The two big parties maintained their position in the local elections, while the middle-ground votes are the ones that seem to have swung around a bit. You could argue this shows Sinn Féin and DUP voters don’t care much that the parties haven’t been operating the institutions for more than two years now.

Or you could say it offers each party the strength and security from which they could make a deal. This might apply especially to the DUP, which was, after all, the one that walked away from a deal last year.

As the ground begins to move against Theresa May at Westminster, it must be clear to the party she will not be there for all that much longer - and DUP influence in London through the present confidence-and-supply agreement will not last forever.

As Bismarck said - or was it Donald Trump? - it’s always better to make a deal from a position of strength.

Northern Editor Gerry Moriarty's report on the first day of the talks is here, and a useful Q&A is here.The talks continue today.

Best reads

Conor Lally reports that Gsoc, the Garda Ombudsman, says the oversight of the force is not really possible. Yikes.

London Editor Denis Staunton reports from the Labour-Tory talks on Brexit and has analysis on the state of the Tory party here.

Kathy Sheridan on O'Connell Street.

A US court has heard Sean Dunne transferred assets to his wife Gayle Killilea and family to avoid paying his debts. No, says Mr Dunne, he transferred the assets out of love. Report is here.

This, from the political correspondent of Sky News, is very good.

And even if you don't like football, there was an astonishing game last night. The report is here, and Mary Hannigan's splendid account of the sheer "flummoxedness" of the television commentators is here.

Playbook

Lots going on today. The talks in Stormont continue, and we’ll bring you reports and updates throughout the day.

Coveney and Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan are in London for a meeting of the British Irish Intergovernmental Council with their British counterparts.

And the Taoiseach flies to the Hague for a meeting with Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte. Brexit, let us not forget, has not gone away, you know.

TDs and senators are back in Leinster House after the Easter break. First up is Leaders’ Questions at 2pm followed by the order of business for the week. Education questions follow, and then Government legislation takes over until a Fianna Fáil Private Members’ Bill on banning scrambler motor bikes.

Busy day also in the Seanad, and at the committees, where much attention will be on the appearance of Gsoc at the justice committee this morning.

Full details on all sittings, along with order papers, etc are here.

Meanwhile, candidates for the European and local elections will be out and about, contributing thoughtfully to our national debate, pestering innocent passers-by and generally trying to be noticed.

So keep your wits about you out there. Watch out for the weather. Be nice to canvassers. You might moan about politics but remember it's VE Day today, the anniversary of the end of the second World War in Europe, which reminds us that the alternative to politics can be rather unpleasant. "With all our long history," Churchill told the cheering crowd in London, "we have never seen a greater day than this." That was before Brexit, of course.

Anyway, whatever you do, have a thoroughly, broadbandy, fruity day.