Mr. Fergal Mulligan:

Mr. Neary and I, along with many others, are intimately familiar with the agreement pertaining to the 300,000 homes. We bear the scars of about nine months of lawyer-to-lawyer engagement with Eircom in getting that agreement. It was a difficult agreement to get. While we got criticism at the time, we were quite proud of getting it because at the start Eircom, fundamentally objected to a commitment to connect people. In the end, the agreement included a fundamental commitment to connect 95% of the 300,000 homes at the standard connection charge, which at the time was €270. That was a one-off connection. That connection charge is now €170. However I understand that the new Eircom model, which ComReg has seen but not intervened on, allows Eircom to get a connection fee of up to €460 from the consumer. That is under a standard connection model. The average rate of switching, say from Vodafone to Sky, is 42 months. Over the next ten years people will generally switch operators. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and ComReg will welcome that. People want to switch and it is good for competition. However it means that most homes will end up paying €460, not €170.