Results 9,081-9,100 of 10,980 for speaker:Timmy Dooley
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: I thank Ms Connolly. In her opening statement, she said that KPMG had provided advice on the design of the procurement process. In hindsight, is KPMG happy with the advice it provided?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: Does KPMG accept that the advice it provided to follow a particular route did not meet the key principle set out in that objective?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: It is the Government and the EU that are at fault, then, for a procurement process that KPMG takes credit for designing and that left one bidder in the race before it was concluded.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: I refer Ms Connolly to the advice KPMG provided in the ownership report of 3 July 2015. On page 24, there is a description of ownership options and the key principle set out in that chart states that "intervention is structured so that the subsidy provided is the minimum amount necessary to allow for infrastructure development by the private sector whilst ensuring that the returns earned by...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: In her presentation, Ms Connolly referred to the withdrawal of Siro and there having been two submissions at a particular stage from Granahan McCourt and Eir. She stated that in their detailed solution submission, both of the bidders that remained in the procurement projected significantly higher levels of subsidy than the Department's budget model. Can Ms Connolly talk to us about the...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: Did KPMG advise on that? Did it help to prepare it?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: Does KPMG accept responsibility for that budget model being considerably out of kilter with what was ultimately submitted?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: When was that information supposed to come? Was it at a point when the submissions came in? How could it be that much out of step? Maybe it was not that much out of step. What was the nature of the gap between what KPMG projected as the Department's budget model and what was actually submitted by the two bidders? What was the scale of the difference between the two?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: Would it be fair to say the Department's budget model was of the order of €500 million?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: It was a higher number and the €1 billion on top of that was the order of the difference.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: It seems to be a considerable difference, considering the company's experience in Northern Ireland, the north of England, Australia and elsewhere. Does Ms Connolly consider that the company has failed in its advice in that regard? Based on its experience, it was not able to get a closer analysis of the costs involved.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: The industry view over time was that the Department had budgeted a set amount of money and there was a belief among bidders that this was all that was available. There is certainly a very strong view that SIRO pulled out because it did not think it was possible to put a business model together based on what the State would provide by way of subsidy. As a result, we wound up without true...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: Does Ms Connolly not accept that the apportionment of risk, which would have been a variable in the event of there being competition, was effectively compromised? There was only one bidder and the State, depending on whether a contract was ever signed, appears to be carrying the vast majority of the risk. Granahan McCourt's proposal, as we understand, based on what the Taoiseach has told us...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: Yes, that brings me to the private sector bidder. Where is the risk being transferred to? What entity carries the risk?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: In transferring risk to an entity with a considerable reputation, does Ms Connolly believe Granahan McCourt has the weight of reputation that can carry the risk?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: Will Ms Connolly take us through the changes in character of the bidder from its first iteration to what the contract will now be signed with? Has Ms Connolly a detailed map of the changes and why she believes they were necessary over that period?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: Is it not the case that Granahan McCourt from the start had little or no standing of its own and relied on others? In the first instance, it relied on John Laing, SSE and Enet. All of those entities withdrew from the Granahan McCourt consortium. At some point a company called McCourt Global LLC was introduced or presented some letter of undertaking to get through a certain phase of the bid...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: Is Ms Connolly not concerned that there have been so many changes? Is she not concerned that companies of considerable international standing have not remained part of this consortium?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: That is important and I thank Ms Connolly for the clarity. It is a complex project and the companies that pulled out are well used to dealing with complex infrastructural projects of scale around the world. The only company that does not have competence in dealing with such projects is Granahan McCourt Dublin (Ireland) Limited.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: National Broadband Plan: Discussion (5 Jun 2019)
Timmy Dooley: That is on the back of other companies that have jockeyed in and out at a rate of knots.