Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Lennon and Mr. Healy. Ms Lennon was frank in recognising the obvious, which is that in the most rural areas it does not make sense on a public policy basis to have two poles. Whatever is happening on the national broadband scheme, one would have thought that if logic in any way applies we would use the ESB poles, given that they are everywhere. Would that then allow Eir take down the existing poles, or would it be obliged under the universal service obligation, USO, in terms of fixed-line services and so on? What are Eir's plans with those? How many poles are there for that?