Mr. Peter Hendrick:

Like any project, lessons are learned during the initial rolling out over the first 24 months. The original plan was to allow for a mobilisation period. Part of the reason the delay penalties would not start until 1 February 2022 was to allow for that mobilisation period. It was intended to allow for lessons to be learned from activity on the ground, bearing in mind that much of this infrastructure has never been built in these areas before. Infrastructure has not been built in some of these locations in more than 20 years. Therefore, as we are building out the network, we are learning ways to do things more efficiently. Ultimately, we must support anything we put forward as a delay with evidence. We are going through that process with the Department now in respect of the 2022 programme.