On the national broadband plan, the Tánaiste this morning directed people who wanted to find out when it is estimated that they will be connected to the national broadband to a page on the Fine Gael website. I would like to ask the Tánaiste if he or his party have consulted with the Data Protection Commissioner as to the legality of this. This is clearly a data harvesting project on the part of Fine Gael. They are using information that is freely available on a public website - a website that the taxpayers pay for - and yet, on the Fine Gael website, there is information being sought that is not necessarily-----

I thank the Deputy.

-----on the NBI website and there is an obligation to sign up to receive information from Fine Gael. I would like to ask the Tánaiste if he has asserted to the legality of the Fine Gael actions.

If Deputy Carthy will not co-operate, I do not mind. I am sitting in the Chair doing my best. The Deputy is allowed contribute briefly and if he speaks for a longer time, other Deputies are deprived.

On the same issue, I congratulate the Tánaiste for the vision in bringing forward this plan in the teeth of opposition from many quarters, including the party who has just spoken. These visionary projects are hard to get through. Can the Tánaiste give an indication that the NDP and new economic plan will represent a watershed where we will see a similar visionary position taken on offshore renewable energy, on land use, on forestry and on the potential ICT revolution that the broadband plan can trigger?

There are other people waiting for the national broadband plan to be connected. Among those, there is a smaller cohort who are just a half a kilometre down the road from where the existing Eir connection ends. Is there anything as part of the plan that can be done to incentivise Eir or other providers to take in a group, within, what I accept is, another half a kilometre, when a sizeable number of people can be connected for a very small amount of infrastructural outlay?

I, once again, warmly welcome the absolute 180° U-turn by Sinn Féin and other parties when it comes to the national broadband plan. This was opposed tooth and nail when we signed that contract in 2019 and now nobody wants to cancel it. We had all the usual conspiracy theories and all the rest of it about how the contract came about and who got it and why, and how somehow things could be done quicker and cheaper, but they could not say how. I welcome the fact that Sinn Féin has now totally U-turned on this and is now a supporter of the national broadband plan which it opposed tooth and nail in 2019.

The Deputies asked many good questions and very technical questions about how we can speed up the NBP. As I said, the money is there. The political will is there. I understand there are technical difficulties because it is such a big project. In my capacity as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I will meet NBI. I will see what might be done to speed it up and I will take on board the matters that the Deputies have raised in that regard.