Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It would be the same as if the Government and Transport Infrastructure Ireland wanted to build a motorway from Limerick to Cork and a private entity told them that it would build 20 km of it and that they could not go through that part if they wanted to build onto either end of it. In other words, the entity would hold the ring. That is what Eir has done. I find this difficult to accept if the complexities were explained to the European Commission. I have read some of its rulings on state aid and broadband. There have been judgments and pronouncements in that regard. From the ESB's point of view and in terms of what Analysys Mason which was hired by the Department stated, this decision blew the process to pieces. I am not an expert in this field and neither are many lay people; therefore, we must go by what the Department tells us, but it was clear on the day of the announcement in April 2017 that the process would be in major difficulty once this happened because it would make everything more expensive. The bidder would have to lease poles and toy with the decision as to whether to use the fibre that had already been laid by Eir or overlay new fibre and install a parallel system. I would like to see written confirmation from the European Commission that, having considered the proposal to doughnut every town, village and cluster of housing in the State, it was 100% sure that doing so would be okay and not damage the process.