Mr. Fergal Mulligan:

Of course, when one has a single bidder that is the perception but, in reality, what we have here, regardless of the number of bidders at the table and the number of remaining bidders in this commercial gap-funded model, is substantial commercial money coming into the project from shareholders, including international ones. Their prerogative is to make a rate return and to get bums on seats, as I said. They need to get people to buying the ICP broadband service from them. They are not here just to get State aid because then they lose their money. Their prerogative is that they are still in an environment where every part of Ireland has broadband and there is the Eircom provision to 300,000 homes, and there are other operators out there that are spending their own money on certain networks. This company is going into a highly competitive and highly changeable environment in terms of technology and it needs to hit the ground running. We are giving any international shareholders that are coming into our process to talk to us and get an investment from the State - because that is what a gap-funded model involves - a grant and they then need to absolutely build this as quick as they can to get people buying the service so that they can get revenue in. Their revenue model is completely dependent on getting people on board and, as we know, the demand is out there. They know they will be hit the minute this has started and launched by thousands of orders. Their prerogative is to get people on board because they need happy customers. They need people to spend money on the bundles they will set up. I think there is fundamental pressure on the consortium to deliver for its shareholders, as well as us, and the State is a key shareholder in that.