The Department’s ongoing struggle with transparency.

The Department’s ongoing struggle with transparency

Back in February in advance of a meeting between Department officials and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, we sent the committee a list of questions which we thought might help to reveal the logic behind some of the decisions Minister Denis Naughten had made over the last two years.

In all we asked 47 questions concerning,

  1. the agreement with Eircom Ltd. on the ‘300K Network’,
  2. the extension of the enet concessions (and their timing),
  3. the protracted market and operational reviews of the Metropolitan Area Networks .

The Committee forwarded the questions to Department for direct reply. Three months followed in which reminders were ignored or met with pleas for more time along with apologies ranging from ‘sincere’ to ‘sincerest’.

The response, when it finally came, was bookended by two phrases; “all of the queries raised are addressed ” and “I trust the above explains the position to your satisfaction.”  

We beg to differ.

Of the 47 questions asked, 11 were answered to some degree, 14 received answers that were some combination of vague, misleading, or diversionary. A further 22 were not answered at all.

The  Department’s response is here

https://grabify.link/5W5D2J

Our response to the Department’s response is here.

https://grabify.link/5P6LU1

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