Ms Michele Connolly:

Our reappraisal work would have started by us standing back and saying, "What is the list of potential options to deliver this project at that point in time?"

It included looking at some of the options that were on the table at the time of our initial report in 2015. It also added in a number of additional options at that point in time, including looking at a universal service designation and the option of negotiating directly with infrastructure access providers such as Eir and ESB. The assessment considered the options from a financial and a non-financial perspective. In terms of the non-financial perspective, it took the criteria set out in the original ownership report, that is, the same criteria as we had at the outset, namely coverage, market effectiveness, incentives to invest, protecting the public interest, deliverability and ability to manage risk. It assessed the key options against those criteria to determine, on a non-financial basis, which option came out ahead, and, from both a financial and a non-financial perspective, the gap funded option, which is the private sector to build, own and operate, came out ahead.