Mr. Fergal Mulligan:

We sat here in 2019 and spoke in detail about encroachment, the €100 million and the circumstances under which it could be drawn down by NBI so it is something we have been through a lot in this committee and the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment. It is there to be drawn upon if it is required. NBI made it clear to us and, I believe, the committee that it has no intention at the moment of seeking that encroachment. NBI also made it fairly clear that it think around 31,000 premises may be passed but we are not clear if they will actually get a connection so it is a bit difficult to say whether 31,000, 20,000 or 10,000 premises will get a fibre connection from a commercial operator. That is the difficulty we have. You would have to analyse every home to see whether it would actually get a connection from a commercial operator. That is something we have not done but I think it has done it.