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:
Penalties come into effect from February this year. We get relief under the contract for things that are outside our control, such as Covid-19 or storms. Regarding relief, there is no compensation for relief so we do not get paid any additional subsidy. We obviously have costs and overheads during that period so we do not get to recover those. We have got a delay in revenue, so that is an impact. There are three factors in terms of penalty - cost, revenue and also penalty from the Minister if we have not hit our numbers by the end of this year. Even though 102,000 is the number we have set, we have still accounted for some delay on our side with regard to hitting that number. We recognise there is a penalty even hitting the 102,000 because of the approximately eight to 12 months of delay. Some of that is on our side in respect of mobilising and getting everything up and running.
No comments