Mr. Mark Griffin:

The emergency call-answering service initially would have been operated by Eircom in what was effectively a monopoly position. That is going back several years. I understand a decision was taken in 2007. I am unsure whether it was forced upon us, taken by design or voluntarily. In any event, the decision was to tender for the provision of an emergency call-answering service. There was an open tender at that stage. The contract was won by BT, which was appointed in 2009 or 2010. The company has run the service effectively in recent years. We can see this by reference to our statistics relative to other member states - we perform exceptionally well.