Mr. Denis O'Leary:

That is true and it is our understanding. One important aspect, however, is that following Eir's decision on the 300,000 customers, one of the issues we raised with the Department was that which the Deputy has just highlighted. We were at a serious disadvantage in having to get infrastructure through the doughnut before we could start picking up the customers in the reduced intervention area. We had discussions with Eir, ComReg and the Department because we felt we should have access to Eir infrastructure in the doughnut at incremental costs in order that we would compete in the intervention area on the same footing. We had much difficulty with that issue in the summer of 2017 with Eir, ComReg and the Department, and it was not getting any closer to a resolution. It came at a time when the clock was running down, under pressure from the Department, and there remained many commercial issues. It was a reason we withdrew.