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THE GOVERNMENT HAS ruled out taking up a proposal by Eir to complete the National Broadband Plan (NBP) for less than €1 billion.
In a statement this evening, the Department for Communications said the evidence presented by the telecommunications company showed the proposal was “not a feasible alternative”.
It follows comments by the company’s CEO Carolan Lennon at the Oireachtas Communications Committee last month, when she claimed that Eir could complete the infrastructure for a figure that was around a third of the current projected cost.
The government estimates that the plan, which aims to bring high-speed internet to over 540,000 properties in rural Ireland, will cost the taxpayer around €3 billion.
However, the Secretary General of the Department of Communications subsequently told another sitting of the committee that the government could not legally accept the offer.
This afternoon, Minister for Communications Richard Bruton updated the Government on the progress made towards finalising the contract for the project, and formally ruled out Eir’s proposal.
Following the meeting, the Department said that the evidence presented by Eir did not meet certain objectives for the plan and that it contained material which had already been raised and dismissed during the companys’ participation in the procurement process.
“It is crucial that we move to sign the contract so that the one million people who today are without access are not left behind,” the Minister said.
“Digital technology is transforming how we live, learn and work. We must make sure the people of rural Ireland have the same opportunities as those in our towns and cities.”
Eir was among the original bidders for the contract but pulled out of the process, and US-based investment firm Granahan McCourt is now the government’s preferred bidder for the contract.
Although a contract has not been signed yet, the Department also announced that it expects this to happen later this year after financial documentation is finalised.
The plan will require the installation of around 144,000 kilometres of fibre cable on about 90,000 Eir poles around Ireland to deliver access to broadband.
Fibre cables will also have to be installed on poles owned by the company, which will be leased from Eir at a cost of around €1 billion.
The escalating cost of the government’s subsidy for the plan has been an ongoing source of controversy, and documents seen by TheJournal.ie show that the estimated cost of the plan rose by €300 million in one month last year.
In a letter to the committee after her appearance, Lennon reiterated claims she made that the company would have been unable to complete the project for €1 billion because of the procurement model used by the Department of Communications.
“While Eir could have delivered the NBP programme as specified, we were unwilling to do so because of the complex and onerous provisions that left us with no possibility to develop a business case for the project,” it read.
“Eir therefore reluctantly took the logical commercial decision to withdraw.”
- 24 confirmed cases in ICU
- 2 admissions to ICU in the last 24hrs
-1 discharge from ICU in the last 24hrs
- 150 confirmed cases in hospital
- 9 admissions to hospital in the last 24hrs
- 11 discharges from hospital in the last 24hrs
- positivity rate is 3.9%, 89172 tests carried out in the last 7 days .
Covid data hub stats
https://covid19ireland-geohive.hub.arcgis.com/pages/hospitals-icu–testing
@Anna Anna: Oliver Walker is out for the crown
@Brian Guilfoyle: as long as someone is posting the stats. Oliver has criticised me for posting the stats before so I think he’s out to prove some point…
@Anna Anna: ooohhh, there’s Comment Section beef?! Drama!!! This is the new Glenroe. I’m all in
@Anna Anna: Actually not criticising you at all Anna… Its nothing to me that you post the stats. But people shouldn’t be just relying on you either… There should be more awareness of the figures.. Plus, I got it wrong anyway and only 1 person spotted it.
@Oliver Walker: They should be in the article as they are the key stats that matter.
@Mickety Dee: exactly. As long as they are left out I’ll keep posting
@Anna Anna: 8 cases have been de-notified today
@Mickety Dee: Some people see 400-680 cases and start freaking out. But that could be the extent of their knowledge of the situation. If people knew how many ICU beds were left, would they maybe take a step back and think?
@Oliver Walker: If you compare it to the cases we had become accustomed to then it is at least enough for a pause for thought.
@Brian Guilfoyle: but he got it wrong! 11 discharges
@Oliver Walker: can tell you there are precisely zero ICU beds in Wexford General Hospital. And only 2 of them taken up by a Covid patient. God help us.
@Oliver Walker: leave it to the expert (Anna Anna)
@Rmc: you’ll set off the troll.s with a comment like that
@Anna Anna: 150 people in hospital yesterday. 11 discharges and 9 admissions. Total remains at 150…. not great at maths but pretty sure that doesn’t add up. 79 people have also got covid in a hospital setting im the past two weeks. Are these people included in the numbers? Pretty sure they are. That means I go into hospital covid free for my nose job and I then catch covid in hospital. Suddenly I am a covid patient in hospital according to the stats. I am grand though. I just want my nose fixed……
@Anna Anna: I skip to the comments section for your stats Anna :-D
@Enda Flaherty: Maybe you should wait until after a pandemic to get your nose fixed… just saying.
@Diarmuid Hunt: You do know I am not actually getting my nose fixed but if it helps you understand, I go to hospital covid free with a heart attack and get covid in hospital, i am now considered hospitalised because of covid. Or should I wait until the pandemic is over until I have my heart attack…….
@Enda Flaherty: he should just check TD Michael McNamara’s YouTube to see the clips of the Seanad Covid Committee last week to understand what you were getting at
@Enda Flaherty: Maybe you should have said that in your original comment rather than trivialising it? If someone has a heart attack and then contracts Covid-19 or MRSA or another disease that prevails within the health system and then dies it is not due to the heart attack (nose job) is it?
@Oliver Walker: 33 Adult Critical Care Beds available and 8 Paeds Critical Care Beds available.
@Enda Flaherty: it may also mean you get taken to hospital by ambulance with breathing issues and are admitted for treatment and put on the suspect list and get a test that comes back the next day as positive. So now you added to the new cases stats but not new admissions as you were detected after admission. Also if you are grand and just wanted your nose fixed you will be discharged “with covid-19″ if you do not need to be in hospital for any reason. This also applies to people in A&E. Consequently the case numbers do not add up.
@Diarmuid Hunt: Trivialising what? How do you know what kills them? If I have a heart attack and get covid or mrsa, it could still be the heart attack that kills me unless you are claiming that everyone who dies and happened to have covid died because of covid? It is also not how covid deaths are recorded so I suggest you look it up. Also not even talking about deaths. I want to know if out of the 150 cases in hospital, did 79 people got covid in hospital? If they did and I am only asking, then the hospitalisation rate that they are publishing is wrong.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: I know what you are saying but they are recording 79 people of actually getting covid in a hospital setting in the last 14 days. That means after admission and that is the source of transmission according to tracing results so they are not saying these people came into hospital with covid that they caught elsewhere. Now are those 79 people included in the 150 cases in hospital? If they are it means the amount of people entering hospital with covid is half what they are actually reporting. I honestly don’t know the answer and could be reading it all wrong but I would like to see it explained.
@Anna Anna: 13,798 active cases in all
@Enda Flaherty: how big is your nose?????just curious.
@Diarmuid Hunt: dude you totally misunderstood Enda’s question, so much so it’s kinda funny
@Enda Flaherty:St aight from the Who guidelines. Maybe you should read up on how they are recorded. (Section 3) A- RECORDING COVID-19 ON THE MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OF CAUSE OF DEATH
COVID-19 should be recorded on the medical certificate of cause of death for ALL decedents where
the disease caused, or is assumed to have caused, or contributed to death.
In terms of counting people who contract it during their stay in hospital why wouldn’t they be counted?
-24 confirmed cases in ICU
-2 admissions to ICU in the last 24 hours
-1 discharge from ICU in the last 24 hours
-150 confirmed cases in hospital
-9 admissions to hospital in the last 24 hours
-1 discharge from hospital in the last 24 hours
- positivity rate is 3.9%, 89,172 tests carried out in the last 7 days.
@Oliver Walker: thanks Anna
@Oliver Walker: Anna Anna is gonna be raging!!
@Oliver Walker: oh.. she wont be happy ;)
@Oliver Walker: thanks Anna love
@Mark: We can all grab info from the Covid app sure…
@Oliver Walker: How dare you
Regards Anna Anna’s biggest fan
@Oliver Walker: thanks ANNA…
@Oliver Walker: Thank you.
@Oliver Walker: 11 discharges not 1 .. sacked.
Anna .. all yours again.
@Pete mc pete: brilliant
@Michael Waldron: Anna has1 discharge also.
@Michael Waldron: I failed miserably… But you’re the only one who copped so maybe I exposed a lack of knowledge…
@Dixieblue: ICU… missed that bit.
@Oliver Walker: thanks Oliver ;)
@Oliver Walker: 11 DISCHARGES Oliver not 1… you are certainly no Anna Anna
@Oliver Walker: Only 1 discharged from hospital?
@Oliver Walker: thanks Oliver
@Oliver Walker: anna said there were 11 discharges from hospitals in the last 24 hours?? Ah well we will forgive as you’re in an acting role.
@Anna Anna: you have seen off all contenders so far
@Oliver Walker: have your resignation letter on my desk by 9am
@Oliver Walker: Thanks Oliver. Great help.
@Oliver Walker: pretender to the throne!!!
@Dixieblue: read that back to yourself…
The person that died rest in peace, but deaths have come down so much with a lot of cases, its time now to open up the economy and protect the vulnerable, majority of people now who get covid have mild symptoms, or no symptoms at all
@mark o donovan: Ssssshhhhhhh!
@mark o donovan: cluster of cases in a nursing home in Laois today. 21 residents and 10 staff. That’s not good!
@mark o donovan: agree but why is everybody nodding along passively accepting it’s going to level 4 and 5 in a short while ?
Probably all the ones who haven’t lost a penny of their income and are happy to go along with a full lockdown while ignoring the anguish of their fellow citizens losing theirs .
@mark o donovan: How do you propose opening up the economy and protecting the vulnerable at the same time?
@Michael Waldron: I really don’t understand this. I’m one of the lucky ones who hasn’t been impacted financially, but I’m at my wit’s end. I grew up in Belfast and when I hear people calling for increased powers for the guards to stop and question, calls for the army to be brought in because a couple of kids are sitting on a wall, I just want to scream. Just heard someone on the radio yelling because 4 d-reg cars passed them in tullamore. The country has list its mind
@Thomas O’ Donnell: I doubt that you will get a serious reply.
@Michael Waldron: or perhaps they are those who have lost friends and family to this virus and don’t want to see other families going through the same pain?
@mark o donovan: The 150 cases in hospital might not agree with you !!
@Thomas O’ Donnell: That would be up to the muppet show to organise.
Dedicated shopping times for older or vulnerable groups would be an easy start.
Would not cost a penny to implement. Prioritise home deliveries for those groups if not already done so.
A little bit of thought and simple measures could help.
@D Mems: poverty and lack of treatment kills too
@mark o donovan: exactly. As has been reported from Sweden also, yes the Case numbers have gone back up recently BUT The actual extreme symptomatic cases are way down compared to the same type of case numbers from back in the Spring…and as a result of that also the related fatalities are way down on that period also.
the physician in question put this down to a type of herd immunity that is down to changes in T Cells that meant even though we could contract the virus just as easily as in the spring, the body was generally far better equipped to withstand its more extreme outcomes and health problems.
In any case , it now looks like we wont have a hospitality industry in Jan 2021 and one can only wish well to the thousands of helpless people and parents who have lost their jobs and main family incomes as a result of these latest measures especially.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: lets have your description of vulnerable ? does it encompass a family with young kids ,scraping by on one low income wage from the hospitality sector that may now be gone. Does it encompass the anxiety and mental health damage that may have on those parents or indeed the children seeing that and maybe forced out of their home due to mortgage arrears or of course rent increases in the face of income loss!??
Rest in peace
@Alison Maguire:
Yes RIP certainly. Is there any information on the death? When it happened? Age? Underlying condidtions etc. Obviously very important data but always left out – I can never understand why.
Dublin had half the cases now a quarter, looking forward to a good Christmas hopefully
@Seán O’Sullivan: you really think nphet will allow that?
@Anne Marie Devlin: its not up to NEPHET!
@Seán O’Sullivan: While Dublin seems to be stabilising, percentages aren’t how you would measure progress. If there are 800 cases in the country tomorrow and Dublin had 150 cases, then this is less than a quarter but more overall than today.
@Anne Marie Devlin: They had a disagreement nothing more. Don’t over dramatise things.
@Anne Marie Devlin: dont be Ridiculous ffs.
@Dixieblue: No it’s up to the government guided by NPHET. If you’re listening to NEPHET you’re off the game entirely.
@Diarmuid Hunt: Government are Advised by NPHET, NPHET Dont make any calls here, we have seen this.. this week.
@Dixieblue: You have just replied to me confirmong exactly what I said…
@Diarmuid Hunt: *confirming (my bad)
@Diarmuid Hunt: miss read your first reply, thought you were having a go. (My bad) ;)
@Dixieblue: so did I
@Dixieblue:
shes not being ridiculous. NPHET had level 5 in mind and will be even more determined now. thats just being realistic.
look at Sam Mcconkey etc , they have come out in force since then to re-inforce the doom laden predictions etc. thats not a coincidence.
I am glad Anna Anna is back from holidays in Liechtenstein
“wAtcH hoW da DEatHs wiLL RisE To dOZeNs nOw iN a fEw wEekS” ~ all the people who have been saying that for the last 3 months
@Stephen Walsh: Shût it, you clöwn.
@Stephen Walsh: Man your caps lock key seems to be going haywire
@Stephen Walsh: Thankfully medical expertise with the virus has improved which has kept the number of deaths and ICU patients low. However, the no. of hospitalisations is increasing which is a worry. That may lead to more deaths but hopefully medical treatments keep improving.
@LangerDan: you were one of loons here a month ago challenging me when I said the deaths wouldn’t rise in a few weeks like you and your mates have been saying for months at this stage. Funny how you and others who said there would be, have gone quiet over the last couple of weeks on those predictions as you realise it didn’t(and won’t) happen.
@Stephen Walsh: I’m glad they haven’t. However note the increases in nursing homes in the last week.
@Stephen Walsh: clearly restrictions have brought those Predicted deaths down.
@Dixieblue: You can’t win, our R-rate goes down due to restrictions and they say Covid-19 was never a threat, if we had done nothing and it had risen exponentially then it would be the government’s fault.
@Stephen Walsh: There were 4 Covid-19 people who sadly died in August compared to 34 Covid-19 people who sadly died in September.
@Stephen Walsh:
youre 100% right. they were challenging you on that weeks ago.
but theres aways a line, always a new spin. He says “now we have better treatments”. to which you say “ok great lets talk about them and see can it allow us to open up a little” to which the response is “well theyre not that good, we dont know alot about the virus”..
its an endless hamster wheel with these people, they are locked in a mindset.
Rural Ireland….get your act together.
@IRL77: Probably best you don’t change that profile picture to yourself because if you did ever venture into “rural Ireland”, good chance you’ll be met with a shovel to the puss….
@James Fenlon: always knew you “rural Ireland” types like to give it but can’t take it.
Positivity rate concerning.
@LangerDan: very true. Only last week it was at 2.4%, seems like a big enough rise alright.
@LangerDan: agree, but there is another way at looking at this, the close contacts and tracing is working better so it could reflect more targeted tested – that is the positive idea.. but just the numbers alone are concerning and it seems to be part of a European wide resurgence.
1st 10,000 cases took until mid April to be reached = with approx. 365 deaths
2nd 10,000 cases arrived by the end of April = with approx. 825 deaths
3rd 10,000 took until early September = with approx. 588 deaths
4th 10,000 will be reached in a couple of days = with approx. 33 deaths
The restrictions obviously slowed the spread down between May and September. Has a change in behaviour carried over and slowed the mortality rate over the last month, or is the virus less lethal?
@Mike O’Dwyer: Either outcome is a positive but we will only know in hindsight.
@Mike O’Dwyer: One possiblity is that the ‘first wave’ figures were more of a sample taken from across the real world cases, and the second wave is a more realistic view of exactly what’s happening. There must be a complex mix of behavioural changes keeping it cornered within certain cohorts of people now vs an even distribution first time around. I haven’t read anywhere that the virus genes have changed much recently so it must be the same.
Which is a blessing, I was predicting to myself that we could end up with over a hundred different strains of it emerging after the global lockdown. It’s great that it is so stable, hopefully that means it will disappear over time.
@Mike O’Dwyer: to be tested in April and May I think you needed to be quite serious with symptoms ( I think you had to have two) whereas now you only need to be a close contact or one mild symptom. If we were catching 1 in 10 cases last April and now catching all the cases the the last 10,000 could represent 1,000 serious and 9,000 who might not have been tested in the past.
The truth lies somewhere in between I suspect but certainly we are detecting a lot less serious cases than last April.
Thanks for the stats, they are interesting.
@Mike O’Dwyer: dont forget they are doing thousands more tests than they were
@Mike O’Dwyer: Less lethal? Has this been going around on Facebook? Lethality hasn’t changed, we’re just slowly getting better at treating some of the symptoms. Hydrocortisone for example works to a certain extant.
Obviously, not a solution. Once the spread picks up speed, there won’t be enough ventilators or drugs to treat everyone and poorer countries just can’t afford either. Which is why flattening the curve is the end goal until we have a vaccine.
@Mike O’Dwyer: I have always thought masks are useless, and I hate then with a passion, but there are early studies that suggest masks are helping. They are not stopping all the virus apparently, letting some get through, but that means the viral load is lower, so less lethal. A benefit is immunity is gained. This needs more research because it could be a game changer if proven. Hopefully a less lethal way to herd immunity, and a return to the real normal for us all.
@Mike O’Dwyer: look at some of Ivor Cummings videos on YouTube. Done great analysis of the data available, and the reasoning as to why.
One further death of a patient with a median age of 84 and an underlying health condition.
@Dave Grant: Who wouldn’t have died if Covid-19 wasn’t a thing, well done on not caring for your compatriots.
@Diarmuid Hunt: well said.
@Dave Grant: and your point is ?
@Sharon Fitzgerald Dunne: His point is he dosent give a flying fiddlers about others and is a dck.
@Sharon Fitzgerald Dunne: He’d prefer if we just Logan’s Run all high risk cases so the pubs can open.
I lost my PUP through my job and I’m not back working cause they have no shifts.. I’m only gettin 203 a week now and have rent and 2 kids. What are people supposed to do??? Genuinely asking
@Mattie Connors: Is that €203 because you earned less than than €200 pw?
@Mattie Connors: not being smart. Maybe look for a second job. Tesco, aldi, lidl, porter in local hospital. I wouldn’t be waiting for a job to come to you
@barry moore: Oh great like its that easy!!!!!
@Franny Ando: actually yes I can be that easy. Infact cleaning company’s are currently looking for staff and the only requirement is basic english. I know some people will struggle with that but the majority will manage.
@barry moore: *it can be that easy
@Olivia Smith: no I should be getting the 300.but they said I’d have to quit my job and apply for the PUP
@barry moore: I already have a second job I’m a taxi driver but no work out there I’d have to rent a car and plate and id end up only working to pay for the car and plate.. Helpful comments only pls.. You pr**k
@Mattie Connors: two jobs and you cant make ends meet. Try living within your means then.
@Mattie Connors: you never said you had two jobs. I was offering advice going with the information you provided. With an attitude like that you shouldn’t even have a taxi licence.
Level four outside dublin coming
@Richard Doherty: With Dublin the only County on level 5, back in you box Richard…..
@Leonard Barry: Dublin is on level 5? This is news to me!
@Leonard Barry: back in your box were reducing our rate outside Dublin is increasing
The GAA and club officials have a lot to answer for here !! Witnessed a local pub hosting two club teams last weekend celebrating like there’s no tomorrow. No social distancing, no attempt to keep numbers down. Friends and relatives all involved ….. packed to rafters. The scenes seen on TV are being repeated in towns and villages all over. No wonder the cases in 18-35′s is on the rampage.TG they’ve now suspended all club matches. Cancel the whole season ffs !!
Here’s hoping after a few weeks at a higher restriction level things will calm down and we can open up fully again. If it’s about the same after the few weeks we should open up anyway and not go to a higher level.. have to learn to live with the virus unfortunately.
@Glammymammy: I’d imagine it will be a balancing act going up and down through the levels depending on the R-rate. Hopefully the general populace can get their heads around the need for this, only time will tell.
Thank God we have the triumvirate of Martin, Varadkar and Ryan at the helm to see us through these choppy waters safely
@Young Politician:
“Two heads are better than none,
One hundred heads are so much better..
Than one”
Very high!!
@Jonnie Marre: Take a Valium.
@Robert Clifford: Dangerous territory mixing uppers with downers, tch tch!
Persons receiving the COVID-19 payment should be recruited to participate in the Contact Tracing. This tracing is essential to
containing this Virus and protecting the people.
@James Keogh: only if they’re top tier civil or public servants !!
@James Keogh: I was on the covid payment after l lost my job.I applied for a contract tracing role and i didn’t even get an interview despite having plenty of relevant experience. Its who you know.
Sincere condolences to the family who has lost a loved one RIP
Thinking also of patients in hospitals and ICU’S and their families
If i murdered someone who had corona virus would that go down as a coronavirus death ?
@sean bergin: yes
@sean bergin: No. If someone could have continued living without also being infected by Covid-19 then it counts. For example if someone with diabetes could continue living for another 10 years but dies due to contracting Covid-19 them they died of Covid-19 not diabetes, don’t worry understanding will come with time, just keep trying.
@Diarmuid Hunt: eh no he’s right. All deaths WITH Covid are recorded..
@Diarmuid Hunt: Nphet confirmed last week that if a person fell off the roof and died but was covid positive, it would be counted as a covid death until a coroner proves otherwise. That was the exact scenario put to them by Michael McNamara
@Anne Marie Devlin: Are all of our coroners blind? Do you really think that an accident like that would be recorded as a Covid death? C’mon thats ridiculous.
@Diarmuid Hunt: Dont waste time on her, best to mute her. I d I o t is what she is.
@Diarmuid Hunt: it is recorded and reported as a death with covid. Fact
@John Doyle: Saying ‘Fact’ doesn’t make it so but keep on believing, ride that midnight train going anywhere.
@Diarmuid Hunt: it won’t allow me to post links. But if you put into YouTube “Recording COVID deaths and cases in Ireland” you will see for yourself.
@Diarmuid Hunt: I’ll wait.
@John Doyle: Sorry for the wait, rather than YouTube here is a link to the Who’s document on how to record Covid-19 deaths, I find official documents slightly more credible than YouTube. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/Guidelines_Cause_of_Death_COVID-19.pdf%3Fua%3D1&ved=2ahUKEwjiy9jAzqHsAhUMkRQKHV7uBS4QFjAAegQIHRAC&usg=AOvVaw3iq-ExFyaoDhU7s0VX_a6R
Would it help if we said mass
@Alan Wilson: don’t knock it till you try it.
This is completely unacceptable and can’t be allowed continue- from here on in nobody is to comment before Anna, what are ye people thinking.
. “A drug person can learn to handle such things as seeing their dead grandmother crawling up their leg with a knife in her teeth. But no one should be asked to deal with this trip.”
Lockdown in 2 weeks , thanks the dirty dubs
@The Wigster: Higher infections outside Dublin ya plank
@The Wigster: 320 cases outside dublin your deluded
@The Wigster: nothing to do with us at this stage the rest of the country out of control by there never hapen to us attitude sure its only the only the dubs dubs !
@The Wigster: 51 in donegal local cluster due to small narrow pub not keeping to the regulations. just follow the darn rules and dont go in a packed pub would be a good start
@The Wigster: poo nugget.
@johnny onion eye: awww Johnny get back into your bedroom behind your net curtain
48% of that is in connection with 1 confirmed case??
@James Lyons: no. They are just got it from someone who is already comfirmed
Any new cases in Waterford? Wish you would break them down more.
Ah sure look it, we will have more check points!
Level 5 NOW!!!!! We should be taking our lead from Dr Tony and not from Dr Leo.
god help us all, he is back!
“Don’t go to work?”
I thought I’m supposed to stay home…
Where is that noob Adam ?
Oliver is a A hole
I am shocked and saddened to see a dramatic rise in Covid19 cases back home in Ireland. Is the current coalition doing nothing to stop It, with a Fianna Fáil leader at the helm? I just knew this new coalition was going to be a recipe for disaster. Under the previous Fine Gael led government, numbers were dropping. Your population is similar to ours in Queensland Australia, where borders are closed to some other states. Just look at our stats and demand more from your government.
Can you not tell us
have your say