Mr. Pat Kidney:

May I expand on that? There were meetings with ESB Networks, particularly when SIRO was still in the process. They were with a view to making the ESB infrastructure available. I attended some of those meetings with the Department.

The use of the ESB infrastructure is not as straightforward as may have been set out in the media. When one starts to go into the matter, it is quite complex. There are significant health and safety issues involved. There are also issues with wayleaves because the infrastructure does not go along the roads, it goes direct. There are technical issues regarding how the fibre is put on the medium and low-voltage networks as well. There is an engineering solution but the infrastructure and products ESB Networks was looking at developing were not at a stage where bids could be put in and a bidder could commit to meeting deployment targets with certainty regarding costs, etc. The committee would have to ask the bidder why it chose Eircom. The latter, or Open Eir, was offering a service with a defined product and a regulated price. A bid needs to be put in - there is considerable uncertainty about how the ESB infrastructure would be used - and that bid has to be committed to. The bidder, left with that sort of choice, went with Eir. However, there is nothing to preclude the bidder from talking to ESB Networks with a view to using its infrastructure in all or part of their network. There is nothing in the contract which would prevent that. It would have to be done under change control. The change control mechanism allows for changes of this nature as long as the benefits to the project and the State are set out and agreed.