Results 1,041-1,060 of 2,990 for speaker:Ossian Smyth

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: I am happy that NBI is fit for purpose and has the ability and the money for this project.

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: I continue to facilitate meetings all the time with and between Eir and NBI. I look at whatever regulatory questions they have. I meet with them and ask what they want the Government to do differently. I analyse what they are doing and look at their reports. I am putting significant focus and energy into this and I am optimistic we will get this to work.

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: I understand exactly what NBI and Eir's respective positions are. NBI says it wants more autonomy in how it works. If it puts cable through a duct which is blocked, it does not want to have to ask Eir for permission to unblock that duct. The irony NBI points out is that the company dealing with the blocking of the ducts is often the same as the subcontractor being used by Eir at the same...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: Is there a time limit?

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: The sums of money are accurate. There is some misunderstanding on the description of the investment. A private-equity investor considers all of his or her investments are equity, whether they are pure shareholding or pure debt. In the case of the funding model for NBI or the investment model, this was agreed in the contract. It is funded with 12% interest loans, but they are shareholder...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: I am happy to clear this up. The project information memo for any Government contracts says that the investors pay their own bid costs. Indeed, the process of the bid went on for a number of years. It would have involved many millions of euro of investment and when the company won the bid and set up, it repaid the costs of the bid from the investors' own capital back to those same...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: The Deputy would have to ask them. This was the agreed investment structure from 2019. If they are international investors, it may suit their tax treatment in the jurisdictions in which they live. I do not know. Certainly, we got Ernst & Young to examine the investments and comment on the risk profile, which was similar to the investors having bought shares. It was acceptable at...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: There is a complex corporate structure to this, as there is with any multibillion euro contract. David McCourt-controlled companies were the ones that led during the bid. The other investors were putting up the money at a later stage, so it is natural that many of the costs of the bid were attributable to a company controlled by him. I understand the Deputy's question on how a company set...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: The ownership and the control of NBI are very specifically detailed in the contract. Ownership is defined there and control is defined there. NBI, if the Deputy is wondering about the dividends, is not a profitable company. It starts to make money when it connects a lot of people. Until a lot of homes are being connected, it will not be in profit. Metallah Limited is the holding company....

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: I will apply all the penalties that are due.

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: As the Deputy said, it was in 2019 that this contract was agreed and signed and it precedes me, but I understand that there were multiple bidders and then a particular company structure was set up to be the vehicle or entity that signed the deal with the Government. I do not know if the Deputy is wondering whether there is something untoward about that or there was something wrong, or that...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: I think there is a discrepancy between the name of who was bidding and whose name was on the contract.

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: This process was agreed with the advisers at the time. The Deputy is not bringing this to my attention for the first time. Rather than say something that is inaccurate on something that is a very complex process, I will give Deputy Duncan Smith an answer in written form if that is all right.

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: That is a reasonable question. That information is on the website today. I looked at it a while ago and that has been rectified. If it was not on it, it is there now. I met the board, first at a virtual meeting and then at a physical meeting where I actually met all of them. Deputy Duncan Smith is correct. All of the names of the people on the board have to be published and have to be known.

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: In his first question, the Deputy talked about the State, the taxpayer or the Government being on the hook for large payments, and said that the service not being delivered was the fear. That is absolutely a fear with any infrastructure project. That is probably the idea that those who drafted or agreed the contract had in mind to use a private company to subcontract it out so that the risk...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: Dublin is not excluded from the NBP. The NBP applies to anyone who cannot get 30 Mbps of broadband from a commercial provider, and that certainly applies to places such as Glencullen and Stepaside, and even more so in Fingal, north County Dublin. According to the figures in front of me, 3,604 premises in Dublin are under construction at the moment as part of the national broadband plan....

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: The Deputy spoke about the differences between people's nominal broadband speeds and what they actually get, and the fact that, if many people suddenly start to work from home, the service will degrade for everybody because they are sharing a pipe at some point upstream. That is a real concern and we are working on it. Any Deputy who wants to meet the head of the national broadband plan in...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: I bow to the Deputy's experience. I am sure she was deeply involved in the process and knows a lot about what was involved and what the arguments were regarding what kind of contract there should have been. As I said, however, the contract has been signed and I have to execute it. The major investors in NBI are Granahan McCourt, the Tetra Corporation, Oak Hill Advisors and Twin Point...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: I will publish as much of the contract as I legally can. It is a huge contract, running to 2,200 pages or so, and there are legal constraints. A large portion of the contract was published before I assumed office, and I have asked the Department to review with the lawyers how much more of it they can publish within the law. The Deputy will appreciate that I am constrained by the law. We...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: This issue is sometimes described as encroachment, where we have defined and agreed an intervention area. A commercial provider is allowed; it is not an exclusion area. A commercial provider is allowed to connect homes in the area if it wants to and thinks it makes sense. The Deputy stated 45,000 homes in the intervention area have been connected by Eir, and while I cannot validate that...