Mr. Peter Hendrick:

During the process, the original intent was to provide a product that would deliver more than 30 Mbps. There was not a view on long-term future-proofing for 25 years. What happened was that when we got through to the pre-qualification stage, when we had SIRO, Eir and what is NBI, all three bidders said fibre was the long-term future for the network. I do not have this information; it is for the Department to say. Where was that range? Where were all three bidders? A bid was not received from SIRO, which involved ESB and Vodafone. My understanding was that the cost of the make-ready would have been significantly greater in terms of building the infrastructure and renting on the electricity infrastructure. Obviously, Eir put in a bid along with ourselves and then decided to exit the process. Again, it was down to risk and shareholder return. That was the reason it decided not to go forward.