Mr. Mark Griffin:

I know it is not. If I look at the parliamentary question, to which the Deputy referred, there is a line in it which states, "I recently finalised decisions relating to the management of the MANs to provide that the current concession agreements co-terminate in 2030, in line with the relevant contractual provisions." Effectively, the Minister stated that the decision had been taken to extend, as was provided for in the concession agreement. As the Deputy knows, the concession agreement provided for an initial term of 15 years, extendable by a further ten years in the case of both lots of MANs, one which was commissioned in 2004 and the second which was commissioned in 2009. Effectively, the termination date for the first was 2020 and the second was 2024.

We carried out a review and, as the Deputy will have heard me say back in December, the conclusion was that it was preferable for the State for a number of reasons that it would extend rather than retender. That review was based on our internal analysis and it was supplemented by a report we commissioned from Norcontel which further reinforced the preliminary view to which we had come.

There was a consultation earlier in regard to how effective the MANs were, whether it was delivering services in rural Ireland in the manner which had been hoped and whether it was achieving the objectives in terms of providing service to the 70 or so service operators which use the MANs. We consulted with several parties. We did not consult the 70 or so but we consulted BT as part of that consultation process. The view back from the process was that the MANs were performing, that they were working well as a concession agreement and that the State should not sell them, one of the options put on the table.

We had gone through an extensive process to consider the provision in the concession agreement which was whether to extend by a further ten years as provided for. In the interests of transparency, it probably would have been preferable if at the time we had issued a press release to say we had done this. The individual service operators would have understood it by virtue of their interaction with MANs as the concessionaire. On reflection, it probably would have been preferable if, in May 2017 or a little bit earlier when we had concluded the decision-making process, we had issued a press release. There was no good reason we did not do so but, on reflection, it would have been a sensible thing to do at that time to bring clarity to the wider stakeholder group.