Professor Eoin Reeves:

Under state aid rules, the Government had no choice. The state aid rules and report for this plan indicate that if the ESB or any other commercial operator has plans to invest in the intervention area within the next two years, it will not qualify for state aid. The Government cannot provide any other State-subsidised investment in that area. When Eir progressed its plans, there was no choice but to sign a commitment deal. In summer 2015, before a contract notice was issued, Eir stated that when it was finished its urban investment roll-out programme, it would move on to the 300,000 premises. It seems to me from speaking to various people that there may have been a calculation by the Department that that may have been a bluff or some way of Eir trying to insert itself into that position. The Department called Eir's bluff by going ahead with the full tender. Once Eir followed through on its plans and talked to the Directorate-General for Competition or the European Commission, there was simply no choice as a commitment deal must be signed if it is to invest as a private operator in the intervention area.