Mr. Fergal Mulligan:

Eir is saying by 2028, actually. It is saying 1.9 million premises will be supplied by not later than, it hopes, 2026 or 2027. It has a roll-out plan. It is at nearly 1.2 million as we speak. Obviously, we are doing the rest with 600,000 with NBI, so 100% of Irish firms will get gigabit. The 30 megabit is no longer relevant. It was relevant for a threshold to come up with a blue and amber map. The term used now is very high capacity networks. That is the term used in the digital decade and in the new state aid guidelines.

Also there is a new Act going through the commission at the moment. It is in its fourth iteration and is called the Gigabit Infrastructure Act. The Act addresses a number of the questions about public infrastructure, mobile and fixed. I will be talking about it later at and presenting on it to the mobile broadband task force after lunch. It is very significant regulation that has been brought in to replace the broadband cost reduction directive. It will be in place, we expect, through the Spanish Presidency, and in law by next March. Every member state in Europe has 24 months to comply with it. That law requires the member states to have a single information point, or information points, which set out on an electronic database every piece of public and private infrastructure, be that a tower, a mast, a piece of ducting, a pole or whatever can be used to put fibre cable or 5G equipment on. All that has to be on a database within 24 months in order that anyone building networks, including the companies such as those in County Roscommon, can say they want to use that infrastructure and there will be a paper on the website with the terms conditions and prices to access it. That will be a mandated regulation that will be in law by March and has to be implemented by every member state.