Concerns about how to justify the rising costs of delivering high-speed Internet to the most remote areas of the country forced the government to again suspend the decision.

On April 16, Irish Prime Minister Taoishah Leo Varadkar set a deadline for ministers to approve the National Broadband Plan (NBP), but this project is not even on the agenda of the last Cabinet meeting before Easter breaks.

Since there is only one bidder left to participate in the valuable tender, officials are doing what the sources call the “exceptional evaluation process” to ensure that the price paid for deploying fiber-optic broadband to more than 500,000 homes and businesses is adequate.

The final cost of the project can exceed many times the projected initial 500 million euros. It is estimated that costs can range from 2 to 3 billion euros.

Communications Minister Richard Bruton said that “due diligence” is nearing completion, but this is an “important decision”, and this requires “time and space”. In the opposition, the delay in resolving the issue of the rural Internet was called “betrayal” and “farce”.