Mr. T.J. Malone:

In fairness, the local authorities, in general, are working really well with us. It took us a while to get them all on board and get used to this. I will not go into specific details as to what counties they are in, but there are still one or two local authorities that are slightly problematic. In general, however, they are working very well with us. It probably took us a while to get used to their systems and vice versaas regards the amount we were putting in. In fairness to the Department, it has put extra funding towards that and making sure they had the facilities within the local authorities. In general, it is less than 14 days, and in some cases they are turning around licences within a week. Part of the problem, as Members can imagine, is when we go out on site to do a connection. It is only at that point that we realise we need a road opening licence for that particular area, whereas on the build we will take a section of the build and apply for a T1 and T2 licence months in advance for that particular section. We could be allowed to excavate maybe up to a hundred blockages in that particular section under that licence, which we would have applied for in advance, but, in fairness, on the connections, we do not realise that until we actually get to the door of the house.

Mr. Hendrick spoke about the survey and design we do, which is unique. No other commercial operator will survey and design every premises for a connection, which we do at the point of the regional survey. It throws up only so much. We cannot go in and rod ducts the whole way through and understand exactly what it is. It is a matter of the time that takes. While the local authority might turn it around reasonably quickly, we have to take that back from site, prepare the application, submit the application, get that back and then put that back into the system to go back out. We are getting better at it all the time, but it is a process that needs a bit more defining now. It would be ideal if we did not have to apply for that road opening licence and could proceed straight away, maybe under a T3-type licence, an emergency-type licence, whereby we could potentially continue to excavate and then retrospectively put it in as a licence. Maybe that would help in the future. As it stands, however, for the system that is in place, the local authorities are, in general, working very well with us.