A lot of theoretical nonsense Ash, these guys have no understanding of the telecoms market which is very complex as you know and we have just dropped nearly 20million getting the best advice possible from people that do understand telecoms.
— Fergal Mulligan (@MulliganFergal) December 2, 2018
From top; David McCourt and Denis Naughten; tweet from Government official Fergal Mulligan responding to a Sunday Business Post article on the National Broadband Plan bidding process;
The Dáil heard statements last night on Peter Smyth’s report into the National Broadband Plan procurement process.
Several TDs raised tweets posted by a Fergal Mulligan in response to an article in the Sunday Business Post.
Mr Mulligan called the story “a lot of theoretical nonsense” and that “we” had “dropped 20 million getting the right advice” on what was the “only game in town”.
Yesterday, The Times Ireland edition reported that Mr Mulligan is a senior government official and programme director for the National Broadband Plan.
Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley was the first yesterday to raise the matter:
Timmy Dooley: “The account in question has, I understand, tweeted around five times since it was created. The communications protocol I outlined earlier states that, as a general matter, members of the NBP team shall not discuss or communicate in any way matters relating to the procurement outside of the NBP team.
…It goes on to state that where communications with a third party takes place, whether oral or written, involving a member of the NBP team, the NBP team member will state that they cannot discuss any matters relating to the procurement process. Can the Minister confirm that this person is in fact who he says he is on Twitter?
“Has he carried out any investigation to establish that? Does he believe it is appropriate for the programme director to engage in this kind of communication at this stage of the process? Why did the programme director take it upon himself to make these unsolicited comments?”