Mr. Mark Griffin:

The ESB-Vodafone joint venture was announced last year. This involves running fibre connections to homes in about 50 locations. Members of the committee will have seen in the newspapers the other day that the intention is that when that aspect of the project is up and running in the second half of this year, they will look very closely at rolling it out to another 300 towns and villages around the country. Eircom has announced its own proposals in that regard involving running fibre connections to homes. I think it is in 66 locations. This does not affect the intervention referred to by Deputy Deasy, because it is unlikely, even with the extended ESB rollout, that there will be much encroachment into the amber area, which is where the Government intervention will be required.