Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I welcome the witnesses. As I have only ten minutes and a number of questions to ask, I will try to keep my questions brief and I would appreciate brief replies.

The two big issues are the ability to deliver and the financial stability. In his opening statement, Mr. Hendrick made the point that as the risk profile of the project evolves it is likely that some of the early-stage investors who helped to turn the NBI from an idea into a reality at a point when there was a lot of unquantifiable risk in the project will be replaced with investors who specialise in long-term investments. The early-stage investors obviously were never in it for the long term. Were they just named partners? The build-out is not a particularly lengthy contract. Have investors dropped out? Is there concern about finance? Is there stability in terms of finance? If NBI is paying high interest rates on loans that tends to suggest this is high risk. Have investors that NBI expected to remain with the project pulled out and, if so, who are they?