Mr. Fergal Mulligan:

The simple way to put this is that, based on analysis we carried out in 2021 and 2022, NBI approached us to say Covid caused a lot of difficulties. Had Covid not happened, the programme would be approximately 3.5 months behind. We have determined that 8.5 months of the delay was related to Covid, for which the company gets relief because things happened beyond its control that it could do nothing about. In net terms, the programme is approximately 3.5 months behind and this is where the sanctions kick in. They have kicked for milestones over the past six or eight months that were missed. This is happening every week. There are 227 deployment areas in the programme. Each has a sanction per day associated with it. For every day it is late there is a financial sanction. So far there is a total of €150,000, of which €135,000 is related to the build. Next week we will impose more sanctions, as we will in the following weeks as there are delays. We have notified the company of a further €100,000 that will be sanctioned in the coming weeks. Again this will be credited against any subsidy that is paid out.