Ms Carolan Lennon:

I am afraid I cannot give the Deputy any hope. I know that is not the answer he wants. People write to me and contact me about this issue every day because we are closing out our rural builds. By the end of the summer we will have the 340,000 premises done and will start our national build. We could just keep on going, although it would be into the intervention footprint, which would cause more problems. In that scenario, the figure would not be 340,000 but 400,000 and I would be over budget and behind in the national build. I know that is not the answer the Deputy wants, but I would rather be honest with him than give false hope. We are involved in some fixed wireless trials in rural areas to see what the opportunities are. We have built the technology in four areas and will make it available to some customers. Depending on how it works, there might be an opportunity in that regard, but in the case of fibre broadband our focus will turn to the national build once we finish the 340,000 premises at the end of the summer.