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. Peter Hendrick:

Yes. Mr. Kelly has spoken about the subsidies and milestones. The Department and its advisers assess all the invoices we receive from all our suppliers and it goes into a permitted expenditure bucket. When we go to achieve a milestone and collect a subsidy, we can only claim from that bucket. If there is €30 million in invoices that have been audited, we have our own internal and external auditors, the Department has its own advisers assessing, and we have an independent certifier to verify that invoices are appropriate and associated with construction of the network. If we achieve a milestone where we are due to be paid €5 million in subsidy and we have €30 million in permitted expenditure, that permitted expenditure drops to €25 million once that €5 million is paid. If there is not enough permitted expenditure, even if we have achieved a milestone and even if we have spent money, there would be no funds associated with that. There is never a connection between the bid costs that were reimbursed or paid out by the investors with the subsidy or milestone payments.

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