Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 27 January 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport
National Broadband Plan Update: National Broadband Ireland
Mr. Barry Kelly:
There are two elements that must happen for us to be able to claim a subsidy under the contract. The first is we must achieve milestones and those milestones are independently certified by an independent party under the contract. They can be design, build or connection milestones. Once we have connected, built, or designed, we get that certificate from the independent certifier. We then need to submit that to the Department with sufficient "permitted expenditure", as Mr. Hendrick mentioned. We can only say that we have spent money on all these things, and it is quite a forensic review we go through every time with the Department. We indicate the costs expended on poles, contractors etc. and the Department will review them and indicate if they qualify as permitted expenditure. That ensures we cannot be subsidised for more than we have spent. There is a maximum spend in the numbers and we can only be subsidised to the maximum.
No comments