Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 15 September 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Business of Joint Committee
Update on National Broadband Plan: National Broadband Ireland

Mr. Peter Hendrick:

I can confirm that there is no downside, that the number is capped and that the subsidy profile is capped. It has been approved by the European Commission at a state aid level. The contract in itself has many protections and legally binding obligations that fall on NBI to deliver the project, one of which is that we do not get any more subsidy than is in the subsidy envelop, and that all of the associated revenue risks sit with NBI. Any gains in terms of savings on materials or labour costs go back to the State, so there is definitely more gain. We see that today in the number of deployment areas that we have completed. We see that the budgeted costs that we had originally envisaged are coming in on or below budget, so we have a high degree of confidence that there will be savings in this project. There is no downside. We take the-----