Mr. Peter Hendrick:

Of the 31,000 premises under encroachment that we talked about earlier, this is an example of the scenario whereby infrastructure is outside or passing a premises, but the cost of connecting that premises is too high. That is one side of it in respect of what is happening around encroachment. We are saying that commercial infrastructure is available to connect a home but the cost of connecting is too high.

Part of our obligation under this contract is to ensure future-proofing of the service and the network for 25 years and beyond. Notwithstanding that we have that obligation, and we are building the network to meet that contractual obligation and the demand for the future, we are engaging. We have a request for proposal, RFP, in the market at present, for which we have already received the first round of responses for a number of wholesale operators, where we could leverage their network and service. What is critical is that they connect with the speeds deemed under the national broadband plan, with the service level agreements that go with it, and the future-proofing requirements we need to give certainty to these homes when they get connected.

It is something we have under way and are keeping the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications informed of. We gave it an update two weeks ago and we said we would give our next updates at the end of March and the end of June. It is something we are looking at and it does make sense, where it is available. The whole premise of the NBP is to use infrastructure where it is available, but it does not take away from the fact we have to deliver the service, and the benchmarked minimum speeds, with service level agreements, SLAs, and future-proofing.