Mr. Ciarán Ó hÓbáin:

We have considered the risk at both ends, for example, the potential cost to the State if the process goes badly. That is why we have taken this approach to a contingent subsidy and a maximum capped subsidy. On the other side, we have considered what would happen if the process was to be very successful and the uptake was fast. In the Department we are positive about the project and considering what is happening in urban areas. We have the figures for Eir's 300,000 households, but we cannot share them. There is frustration about that, as figures are sometimes thrown around that are below them, although I will not say which. Everything we are seeing in the market suggests we will not have the worst case scenario; rather, we will be somewhere in a mid-to-positive case scenario.

On how the contract is structured, it has to protect against the very positives and the very negatives. Governance will lead towards the place one will expect to be in - the middle case scenario.