Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 13 June 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment

National Broadband Plan: Discussion (Resumed)

Ms Amy Ball:

In response to that question, I remind the Deputy of the benefits we have gone through. As the Deputy said, we have taken assumptions but they are well-founded in economic theory, robust methodology, strong research and strong validation by subject matter experts. We are very comfortable that the construct and results in the cost-benefit analysis are strong and we stand over our work. Yes, the world is changing. If I think back to 25 years ago, none of us had mobile phones. Today, business models are being disrupted due to digital and digital relies on broadband and fast generation network access. As we look into the future over a 25 year period, it is very hard for us to predict what the future landscape will look like. I would say we took a conservative approach to our benefits evaluation. From a benefits perspective, overall it is positive and has been with every version we have run.

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