Ms Michele Connolly:

The detailed financial model that the investor brought forward would have included its estimates of the revenue that was going to come in from the subsidy and the revenue from the retail service providers, that is, the users of the network. Against that, the investor would have to take into account the cost to build the asset, as well as the substantial cost to operate the asset over its lifetime. That includes the cost of the infrastructure it will need to rent from Eir. Putting all of that into a financial model will then drive out what is the profitability of the project. The investor's return comes from the profitability inherent in the project.