Mr. Fergal Mulligan:

-----but I have spent a couple of hours in a room with both sets of lawyers this morning on that very point of the shareholder agreements that have to be put in place, which underpin the contract. In any of these public private partnerships, PPPs, or large infrastructure projects, there is a spider's web of contracts that are signed by lots of different individuals, including the Minister. For example, we have direct agreements with the subcontractors and we will even have a direct agreement with KN Network Services and Actavo, for example. It will always go above National Broadband Ireland in the context of the committed agreements and legal ability to enforce the contract. NBI is the broadband company but the obligations do not just sit with it; they flow all the way to the people who have put in their bid. They have to honour the contract. What is the cause and effect? They could lose all their money. If they put in more money and it collapses they could lose that money. They can lose all that and we have a charge over all the assets that are built until the full contract is honoured for 25 years. It is like any bank that has a mortgage with a homeowner. The homeowner is not off the hook until he or she fully honours the mortgage. We have the same arrangement with this bidder and the assets. If there is an asset there of fibre cable, we have a charge over all assets that are built and funded through National Broadband Ireland.

That is just one aspect. It also has to put a bond up and there are a lot of warranties and indemnities that it has to honour in the contract, and if it does not fulfil them, it could be sued by the State. It has to sign up to all of those measures. That is why we will spend the next two or three months contractualising all that to the nth degree, all the way from NBI, Holdco and up to Tetrad Corporation and Granahan McCourt, as the Deputy mentioned. That is all in place with the contracts and that is why there is a data room as it is called. I found out this morning that a contract closed for two weeks because there are myriad documents, which are signed by all of those people and the Minister to ensure that over 25 years somebody cannot just walk away and that is the end of it. There are big consequences to walking away from this contract.