Mr. Mark Griffin:

There are difficulties. I hope I am right in answering the question, but if I am not, I will get others to correct me. It will not be the first time it has done so. Under state aid rules, we are obliged to go through a public procurement process, which we did. Indirectly through SIRO, its joint venture with Vodafone, the ESB was one of the original bidders. Its focus was primarily on using its own network and it might well have used existing Eir infrastructure. As such, the ESB was on the pitch. For reasons it set out publicly at a later stage, it decided to withdraw from the process. There has been some public commentary in the media and in the Oireachtas about simply assigning this function to a State undertaking. That cannot be done under state aid or EU procurement rules.