Dr. Dónal Palcic:

The point was that Eir would have to create a wholesale division separate from Open Eir in the intervention area and then, if it is competing in the wholesale market, anyone using its services would have to go to two different companies - its wholesale one outside the intervention area and the one inside the intervention area - and Open Eir would not be able to compete in the intervention area whereas other operators would. What we were basically saying there was, in terms of Eir's incentive to want to win this contract, the complexity that type structure would create for Eir would probably diminish its desire to win that contract whereas they are assuming there will be strong competition from the likes of Eir or SIRO with existing infrastructure that they can leverage, etc. Our point was not that this should not have happened. The clear line of separation is perfectly understandable but it definitely would have affected Eir's incentive, particularly because the Department is setting up a separate governance and regulatory structure for that area. They are setting a different price. ComReg is already regulating Eir outside of that area across the country. The conflict between what the Department might want in this area, what ComReg requires of Eir outside of that area and-----