Ms Michele Connolly:

If we were to start again, working on the assumption that the intervention strategy and the objectives would still be the same and that everybody would still want to deliver 100% coverage to rural Ireland at a minimum of 30 Mbps as set out in the intervention strategy - I am assuming everybody would still want to start on that basis - as well as appoint advisers, the Department would have to look at the options available in order to deliver in line with that strategy. Effectively, we would have to go back and look at items such as the options for ownership. Once that had been decided, we would then need to design a procurement process. It would be possible to reuse much of the material that is already there such as, for example, the procurement process and the documentation. That could be used and adapted. The same applies to the contract, which could be used and adapted. However, it would still take a considerable period of months to look at the options and get a Government decision on them and then putting in place and starting a tendering process. We would also have to go back and do a market consultation. Starting from square one, there would be a need to consult the market to see if there would be a different appetite second time round and whether a different outcome from a cost perspective would be delivered second time round. All that preparatory work could take anywhere from six to 12 or six to 18 months before it would be possible to start a tender competition, which for a project of this scale and complexity would take a minimum of two to three years, assuming it did not hit any additional challenges along the way.