David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to understate the complexity of the issue. Mr. Griffin is right when he says this is a bespoke and unique project. At the same time, there are very few households in the country that are not connected to the ESB. From a layman's perspective, it would have made sense, given that it will be difficult to create a new layer of infrastructure, to use the ESB. Most observers would say the ESB's bid was not a serious one. That is just an opinion that is offered up by some analysts. Am I oversimplifying matters by saying that if the vast majority, if not all, homes have access to the ESB, there is obviously infrastructure there which it would have made sense to use to ensure broadband could be rolled out to every home and property in the country? The difficulty is that we need to get to that position but are now creating a whole new set of infrastructure which is creating problems. Into the mix also come the 300,000 homes Eir took out of the original plan which has complicated matters even more and potentially rendered the proposition non-viable. That is why we are down, potentially, to one bidder.