Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor Reeves and Dr. Palcic for attending. The documents and executive summaries they have provided set out a very clear picture. There is very little further to question them on. They have made it clear, using their academic position and experience in procurement, that while the process that was undertaken may have started out as a sound endeavour and there was a certain context to the gap funding model, it effectively evaporated as soon as the other potential bidders pulled out. We have been concerned about that for some time in the committee. From a policy perspective, it is clear that the tender process and consultative dialogue process should have halted at that point and we would not be in the mess we are in if it had halted at that stage. It seems that if one follows the process and the position of the Department and Government, they just did not want this to fail. It could not fail because it was too important even when all the fundamentals that underpinned the particular process had changed. The top line issue of getting a broadband service to consumers in the intervention area was such that they had to keep going, which leaves us in a difficult position.

Professor Reeves spoke about opportunistic behaviour and the potential for such behaviour when there is no competition in the process. That is certainly something that we identified here and the witnesses identified it with regard to the parallel building of the network. Based on their examination of the information that has been published, do the witnesses have any idea what the additional cost of building the network out over the existing network, rather than splicing into it, would have been?

With regard to state aid rules, I acknowledge that the witnesses may not have expertise in this area. Are they concerned that the additional taxpayer-funded network being rolled out in the area with 300,000 premises may not comply with state aid rules? Do they believe that a contractual agreement can be put in place that will prevent the final bidder from using its network in that area?

I will leave it at that because the witnesses have given an exceptionally comprehensive and useful presentation.