Mr. Ciarán Ó hÓbáin:

We are pleased to have the opportunity to attend today's meeting and will address the remaining questions asked at last week's meeting. The team from the Department includes Ms Orla Ryan, principal officer for the national broadband plan, NBP, Mr. Fergal Mulligan, programme director for the national broadband plan and Mr. Patrick Neary, chief technology officer of the Department. I am the assistant secretary in the area of communications. As the Chair outlined, we have provided the clerk with a slide presentation. We do not propose to speak to the presentation but may refer to individual slides in the context of replies and, for that reason, have numbered the slides for ease of reference. The slide presentation covers the objectives of the national broadband plan, the mapping process, the procurement timeline from the outset of the process through to preferred bidder, value for money issues and next steps.

With the agreement of the Chair, I will turn to the remaining questions from last week. For efficiency, I propose that we deal with them in three groups. Mr. Mulligan will address the questions dealing with the three lots, wholesale contracts and State aid issues, followed by Mr. Neary addressing questions on the NBP mapping process and the Eir contract to provide broadband to 300,000 premises and, lastly, Mr. Mulligan will address questions on value for money, pricing structure and technical solutions.