Mr. Ciarán Ó hÓbáin:

The figure that was called out is close to €1 billion. Of that, Eir is allowed a return on its investment, which is 8.2%. Let us do the maths. It means over 90% of that money is to meet the cost of keeping the infrastructure in place. What one is paying for is the fact that poles need to be replaced and for all of the costs of operating a network over 100,000 km of road in rural Ireland. This is not money for jam. This is money where one gets a rate of return that was set by ComReg, and ComReg can change the rate of return - the pole price. On the basis of the model that we have before us, 8% of that money is the return to Eir on its investment in that network but the rest of it is for meeting costs. The ESB would have costs of maintaining the network, equally.