Results 13,481-13,500 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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Might it be that the interaction between the business and a human being, for example, or a company is a preferable approach? Are there aspects like that that have been overlooked?

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I wish to return to the MANs. The Department has essentially fulfilled the role of the regulator because ComReg was not regulating prices. The Department got Norcontel to carry out an analysis and following that, the MANs concessionary contracts were extended. Then there was the Analysys Mason report. I cannot remember whether the report or the extension came first. Is it fair to say...

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Was that not a failure or an oversight given some of the things that emerged in the Analysys Mason report and given the fact that ComReg has been asked to do work as well?

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Then we are into the scenario where there was no tendering process. We went through that this morning. I have my views on it but that is neither here nor there. I will move on. I do not know if Mr. Mulligan can give us the information but he mentioned the connection cost being €100 per household, irrespective of where it is in the country. I do not dispute that everybody should...

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: However, Mr. Mulligan will not be able to give that to us.

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: The public spending code must be complied with when something is over the threshold of €20 million. Is it usual that a cost-benefit analysis would be commercially sensitive? Is this an unusual scenario in the context of the delivery of this network?

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I certainly understand the Department does not want to drive up prices but wants to keep them down.

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: The Department is changing its approach as things change, for example, to reflect the number in the commercial sector-----

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I wish to discuss the expected cost in 2015. I am reading from a report produced by Mr. Colm McCarthy, with which I am sure Mr. Griffin is familiar. The projected cost reflected a specified standard. Has the bandwidth changed since 2015?

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Is that what the €500 million figure was benchmarked against?

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: We started off with 800,000 premises and are now down to 540,000. A chunk of them have been taken out by Imagine and Eir.

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Why is the price going to increase when there are fewer premises involved? It just does not add up.

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: It is almost a disadvantage that others have intervened.

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: If the State had decided to build and own the network from day one, it would probably have been more cost-effective in the end. The network will be extended out to those places.

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: I want to come back to the report published by Analysys Mason. The headline was an expected reduction in cost per metre. We all saw it as very good news because if the wholesale cost is reduced, the retail cost will be reduced. The Minister then referred a review of pricing to the Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg. What role does ComReg have in looking at the analysis and...

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: The State's investment in metropolitan area networks, MANs, was somewhere short of €180 million. It is a concessionary contract. We own the MANs. What are they worth, or has such an evaluation been made? Does the revenue they have raised for the State match projections?

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Is it more than €180 million?

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: It is important in the context of how a company is actually operating. One could have a company that is not investing, for example. If that is the case, it becomes a less valuable asset.

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: How many staff in the Department work on the technical side of things?

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 (Resumed) (28 Mar 2019)

Catherine Murphy: Presumably, there is some revenue shared with the State. What is the profile?