Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think there is anything new in the fact that the composition of the consortium changed over time. That is all information we have all been aware of for many months.

I was not at that dinner. No member of the current Government was at that dinner. The former Minister, Deputy Naughten, was but I cannot answer questions on his behalf. In any event I am confident that all of this was covered in the independent report on this matter carried out by Peter Smyth some months ago. That is published and in the public domain.

As for the financial guarantees, National Broadband Ireland will make available €220 million in equity and working capital upfront. This will be legally required by the contract, which is being finalised. There is no upfront contribution from the taxpayer. The taxpayer only contributes after the fibre is deployed and homes are passed and subsequently connected. The total cost of the project is between €5 and €6 billion, including VAT and contingences, with roughly half coming from the State in the form of the Exchequer subsidy and the other half from the investor and commercial revenues.

The Deputy asked about the upfront contribution. A total of €175 million comes from Tetrad Corporation and the rest from Granahan McCourt Dublin (Ireland) Limited. The funding commitments will be contracted in advance of the contract award and any committed funding that has not been drawn down by National Broadband Ireland at financial close will require a guarantee in a form that is acceptable to the Department. This is standard practice for large-scale procurements.

McCourt Global LLC is one of two companies on which the bidder relied to demonstrate its capacity to meet financial and economic criteria at pre-qualification stage. The other company was Tetrad Corporation. Both companies provided the necessary letters of support at that point in the process. They were each assessed in respect of the financial and economic capacity and both passed. There is no issue with any bidder relying on the resources of other companies and requirements were set out for this in advance, in the project information and memorandum and the pre-qualification questionnaire, which were given to all bidders in 2016 and were published. This is a standard procurement procedure to ensure that appropriate financial capacity and guarantees are in place. All other bidders to the process would have sought to do the same. At final tender both Tetrad Corporation and McCourt Global LLC reiterated their support but Tetrad Corporation also provided an equity support letter in respect of the funds outlined in the bidder's funding plan. This means Tetrad has committed to the full equity amount. Decisions on the sources of funding, such as the decision to go with equity from Tetrad rather than McCourt Global, are matters for the bidder and the company.

A parliamentary question last week identified McCourt Global as the ultimate investor but I understand the Department has now corrected the record and has clarified any confusion in respect of the role of McCourt Global. The role of the company, as I outlined to the Dáil last week, is one of two entities relied on for pre-qualification.

It provided a letter of support. At final tender, the equity commitments were provided by Tetrad. I am sure the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment will be happy to clarify any further issues or answer any further questions in this regard.

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