Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The national broadband process is clear. The only way in which one could consider any offer from Eir would be by abandoning this process and starting all over again. That is absolutely clear and Eir acknowledged that because it has not made an offer, under any of these various financial scenarios, in which it says it could do it for €500 million, €1 billion, or €1.55 billion. Eir's offer within the process was €2.7 billion.

There has been ample engagement with Eir around its concerns. There were 200 hours, across 65 meetings, during which officials engaged with Eir about its concerns. Progress was made on many of those concerns but Eir decided unilaterally to pull out of the process. That was Eir's decision.

The level of scrutiny and independent advice has been absolutely clear and there have been independent elements throughout the process. It complied with state aid, so the European Commission was involved to see that the process was compliant on that front. There were independent committees with external representation and State expertise brought to bear at every stage. They were reviewed by an oversight committee that was also independent. There was an independent assessor who oversaw the process to ensure it was fair throughout. Eir has had ample opportunity to make its proposal within the terms that were designed to protect the State and its investment and to deliver the service to proper performance standards and to comply with state aid rules. Eir failed to do that and pulled out of the process.

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