Mr. T.J. Malone:

While it has not specifically delayed us, it has put a great deal of pressure on everybody. It has put a massive amount of pressure on our side. We have had to resurvey and redesign certain areas to accommodate the guidelines that came out. It is also putting massive pressure on the local authorities to get through backlogs quickly so that we can proceed on time. It has not specifically delayed the roll-out but, to answer the Chairman's second question, we should definitely have a dedicated resource for the national broadband plan. I believe that it where Deputy Ó Murchú was coming from as well. It is not just our licences that are being processed. The authorities are processing licences on behalf of NBI, on behalf of Eir for its "make ready" works and on behalf of our contractors to allow them to carry out work on the ground. They are not only processing applications for licences for poles, but also applications for road opening licences. There are two parts: the road engineers and the planning departments. When you go to the local authorities, you are also dealing with municipal districts so you could be dealing with four or five different people when you are dealing with one particular application for a set of poles. To answer the question in short, if we had dedicated resources within each local authority that could handle our licence applications and process them in a timely fashion, it would be of great benefit to us in attempting to complete this plan in less than the seven years.