Mr. Denis O'Leary:

I will take the question on the project itself. In my opening remarks I tried to give some impression of the complexity of the project. Having been involved in the roll-out of infrastructure with ESB for many years, I know that it is an enormous project to roll out 80,000 km of high-speed broadband in the most remote locations in the country, where road access, the terrain and connectivity are poor. It is really difficult. For a project such as that, it cannot be decided to do all of west Cork and then all of north Kerry. Work would have to start in all 26 counties at the one time so that the whole lot could be brought together. That adds to the complexity. It is only once the process begins that it becomes clear how detailed the contracts and documentation have to be because there are so many issues to be covered.

It is true that we have had disputes and disagreements with the Department. On the one hand, as the bidder, we wanted to have it our way; and on the other hand, in deciding the contract, the Department approached it from the point of view of ensuring that the maximum risk lay with the bidder, the minimum risk lay with the State and the State was covered in all eventualities. In doing that, the Department crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's, and it is our position that it crossed too many t's and dotted too many i's; that was our concern. However, we never disagreed with why the Department took that approach.