Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If other members want to come in there, they should use the raise hand feature.

I will revert to the national broadband plan for a moment. This is a huge project and we all know it is badly needed. Everybody wants to see it, no one more than I, as a representative of a rural constituency with many commuters. There are a lot of people involved in small businesses around the midlands and across Laois-Offaly. Mr. Mulligan, as the programme manager, might clarify a matter for me. As I understand it, the investor or sole bidder has the contract. It rents infrastructure off another company, Eir, which was privatised in 1999 and is owned by a French consortium. Is the preferred bidder or contractor, NBI, paying an annual fee to the French consortium that owns Eir for the hire of poles and ducting?