Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I can see now why the Minister did not have a figure for the cost of the roll-out of MANs phase 2 or 3 because he has just told us that the MANs need to be reviewed. I agree with him but that is inconsistent with what we were told earlier, that MANs phase 2 will go ahead as planned. If Eircom splits into two companies, as it suggests, one of which would be a wholesale service provider and network operator with an open access infrastructure competing with State funded infrastructure, the Minister may find himself in some legal difficulty. I do not want the State to have to fork out a fortune to contest a difficult case.

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