Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I understand there were multiple bidders in the process whereby the contract was awarded during the previous Administration. Finally, there was only one bidder because the other bidders dropped out and the contract was awarded to NBI. The terms of that contract stated NBI had to provide €100 million of investment as part of its investment in the project and a total of €175 million would be required over time. That €100 million did come in, plus another €20 million in the last two months. We are now at €120 million of investment from the investors and another €55 million is to be delivered. All of that has come in on time. There has been discussion of whether that €100 million is debt or equity. The vast majority of it - 99% - is in the form of a hybrid investment, which has characteristics of debt and characteristics of equity. In other words, it is a shareholder loan. At the end of the day, the investors had to come up with that money and they had to put it into the-----

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