Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that it has been said that no requests have been received. When the chief executive of Eir was here she said that if she goes to her board and gets another €100 million she will be able to roll out the scheme to another 80,000 premises. Obviously that has not progressed. She said it was possible, and it was not a commitment. She has not gone to the Department with that commitment since but maybe she is waiting to see what happens here first. I do not know. All I am saying is that she made htat remark.

I know the Department might not want to answer my next few questions today. Has the Secretary General any concept, and he must have based on the information his Department has received, of how much it is going to cost to deal with the 540,000 houses? How was the total cost of the project versus the amount of the subsidy liable to be paid by the taxpayer calculated? Let us say something costs €100. How does one decide how much must be paid by taxpayers? What is the decision-making process in terms of how much taxpayers must pay? Have the bidders outlined what they want? Please tell me the percentage but I do not think the Secretary General will want to do so. How does the Department decide the percentage of the subsidy for the project that the taxpayer is going to carry? What is the process?