Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport
National Broadband Plan Update: National Broadband Ireland
Mr. Peter Hendrick:
The background is that Granahan McCourt Dublin is our shareholder. It has investors which have invested into the project through Granahan McCourt Dublin. Those investors are a mixture between telecoms expertise and individuals, such as David McCourt and Walter Scott and his family trust which have deep telecoms experience, as well as partners of theirs which have a higher risk appetite in terms of construction risk and take-up risk. We are sitting here talking about 56 retail operators. Three years ago it was not clear that we would get 56 retail operators. That is great for consumers because it means that there is competition and different services in products and price. The stage we are at today is that there is an opportunity to look to bring in like-minded long-term partners that are equally infrastructure partners who have fibre assets. Typically those infrastructure partners come in at a stage when there is not the same risk profile around construction or take up. There is clear predictability and stability in the programme.
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