Results 13,041-13,060 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy
- Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Broadband Service Provision: Discussion
BT Ireland (14 Feb 2019) Catherine Murphy: There would be consequences for the State under state aid rules for not operating this correctly. What consequences does Mr. Evans understand there will be?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: I wish the witnesses a good afternoon and apologise for the delay. I wish to deal first with the MANs. I appreciate that Eir has its own network but did it indicate its interest to the Department in advance? These contracts were not due to come up until 2019 and 2024 but would have been dealt with in advance of that.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: Eir was expecting it.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: That would have been several entities potentially in a competitive process.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: In fact it might have driven down the price several years ago because we noted there was a 50% reduction per metre announced yesterday, as a consequence of the Analysys Mason report.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: I may come back to that. I want to concentrate on another point. Ms Lennon touched on her regulatory concerns with regard to the withdrawal of the national broadband plan. We have only one entity now. Ms Lennon said there were only two. It can only be Eir and Enet who were still in it - if that is what the consortium is called now. It would have been SIRO. I understand it was in the...
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: Ms Lennon has gone through the efforts and costs for that.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: It is not an inconsiderable effort to do that submission. Did Ms Lennon raise the concerns at the time with the Department? I understand there is a communications protocol but there would have been a separation within the Department for the team that was dealing with it. Did Ms Lennon raise her concerns?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: Should he have raised those issues?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: Does Ms Lennon think there was inequality of treatment? We see in Mr. Peter Smyth's report that there was ongoing engagement with another entity, but in Ms Lennon's experience, was there inequality of treatment?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: Would Ms Lennon say Eir was subject to inequality of treatment?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: Eir accepted the protocol, but the protocol did not seem to apply universally.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: However, judging from the report, there was no equality of treatment.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: In retrospect, does Ms Lennon think the concerns Eir expressed undermined the national broadband process? It appears that instead of the process accelerating the delivery of broadband, it has delayed it. Is that correct?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: Eir's recent investment which I accept is a commercial one and does not require a subsidy from the State is in part of the area mapped as an intervention area.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: No, not now, but it was in terms of the business case made at the beginning. Does this change that business case? Does what Eir and possibly others are doing change it?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: We note what Eir stated about the terminology used of "passed" and "access to" and that it does not necessarily mean penetration.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: The regulation is quite confusing. ComReg does some things and not others, while the Department appears to be a regulator of sorts. Did the Department dictate duct prices and the like?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: There has been much discussion about whether 5G is an alternative to fixed fibre. It would be useful to have Ms Lennon's input on that issue. Does it differ in urban and rural areas? What does it look like physically? It would be helpful to know.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Catherine Murphy: When Ms Lennon refers to an awful lot of masts, is it more than one per town?