Mr. Jeremy Godfrey:

To return to the Deputy's question about governance processes, in the context of a state intervention, there are two significant elements of governance, one of which is looking after the State's money, that is to say, making sure the money is spent to achieve the objectives for which it was granted, making sure the network is rolled out according to the plans, making sure some of the profits of the operator can be clawed back if they are greater than envisaged when the subsidy was calculated and so forth. That is one part of the necessary governance - looking after the commercial and financial issues involved. It is not something in which ComReg is involved in any other circumstance.

There is also a set of governance requirements related to the behaviour of the winning bidder in the marketplace. What products, including wholesale products, does it offer? How are they priced? Does it treat all of its retail service customers equally? These matters are similar to the obligations ComReg might impose on an operator within our regulatory remit that has been found to have significant market power, but in this case they would be imposed on foot of the receipt of state aid. Under the guidelines, we are not limited to imposing such obligations on those with significant market power. ComReg does have skills and experience when it comes to the latter obligations.

It is envisaged in the governance process that ComReg would make available the skills and experience for governance but the precise way in which that would be done and the precise role that we would have are matters for the Department. In some ways both of those things would need to be done whatever model was followed.

Deputy Dooley asked whether we would comment on Eir's assertion that it could do the project for €1 billion. As a regulator, the advice we have provided to the Government on this process has been on matters related to where there has been market failure and what sort of obligations should be imposed. Under state aid guidelines, those are the issues that national regulatory authorities are expected to advise on. We have not been an adviser on the potential cost to the public purse of different scenarios. In any event, we have not had shared with us the information necessary to do that. What I would say in terms of the money is that it is a matter for the Department to assess the plausibility of the assumptions that underlie Eir's assertion. It is for the Department to assess whether there is a credible explanation of the differences between the assumptions made in the different scenarios. That is not something ComReg can comment on.