Mr. Ronan Lupton:

I agree completely. Members may recall that The Irish Timespublished a document, retrieved through a freedom of information request from the Minister's officials, relating to a review that had been undertaken of the status of the NBP. The review document said that the cost of the subsidy would increase by 60% based on the carve out of 300,000 households. We have the position where statements that say it is not economically or commercially viable are just not correct because fundamentally there would not be a need for a subsidy if it was commercially viable. I agree with the Deputy's position but there are deeply nuanced aspects in this area. Fundamentally, we need to facilitate the 580,000 premises that are outside the 300,000 carve out and the question is how to do it. Passive infrastructure access, PIA, is certainly one element and we are calling for ducts and poles to be fit for purpose and made more robust. As Mr. O'Dwyer set out, this must priced in a fashion that is workable for the industry to roll out those services. We may need to get subsidies in certain locations.

If the scheme is efficient and modelled correctly then the competitive market will take it.