Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Thank you, Minister. I will bring in several members of the committee together. People may wish to bank some of the questions. I will start with my questions.

What guarantee is there, Minister, that the remaining consortium, enet-SSE, will not at some stage withdraw from the process? Can you comment on that? What guarantee can you give, Minister, that the contract price will be fair and reasonable now that only one consortium remains? Previously, you allowed Eir to roll out high-speed broadband to an additional 300,000 homes at their own expense. Those households are widely regarded to be the easiest to connect to the network, with the remaining 540,000 being the most difficult. Do you think that contributed to Eir's decision to withdraw from the process?

The Minister might comment on those three questions. I call Deputy Lowry.