Results 7,521-7,540 of 34,616 for speaker:Seán Fleming
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: Were the other 300,000 homes included at the original stage? It might have posed a risk to the overall project and access to State aid if there were 850,000 houses involved, some of which were not entitled to such aid.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: In the intervention area which now includes 540,000 houses, if there are people who are willing and able to pay for a broadband service, are there providers in the market which could provide it? Are they allowed to do so?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: Ms Lennon has mentioned that during the course of her work Eir has pulled in an extra 30,000 new houses which were not on the original map. If another €100 million was provided, could Eir pull in another 100,000 homes? Could that be done if Eir was given the budget to do it by its shareholders and board? Some 310,000 houses have been taken out of the plan on the basis of the budget...
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: Is that 150,000 pulled in from the figure of 540,000?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: How can Ireland go to the European Union under state aid rules and ask that this be approved for a subsidy when a company such as Eir is stating a significant proportion could be done commercially?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: That is my point.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: Is Ms Lennon saying there are 150,000 houses in the existing 540,000 houses for which, if Eir had the budget, it could do it commercially?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: We are now saying that a chunk of the plan in front of us can be done commercially if Eir had the budget. My concern from the Department's point of view, not from Eir's point of view, is how the Department can run a competition on the basis of getting rural broadband to 540,000 houses without contravening state aid rules. There is going to be a subsidy and then, lo and behold, someone says...
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: It might be possible that other providers could do the same through other mechanisms; Ms Lennon mentioned that 5G can be a partial solution in some places. Leaving the ideology out of it for a minute, if there are people who are willing to provide the service, is it possible that a larger chunk out of the 540,000 than the 150,000 could be provided commercially?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: We started off with a plan that was going to be eligible under the state aid rules at 850,000. We now have 300,000 knocked off that. Ms Lennon is saying that if Eir had another budget it could knock off another 150,000 on its own. She is saying another company is going to say it can do a whole lot more. I wonder why we are talking about the 540,000 houses now. That is really a question...
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: If Eir's board of directors was willing to give a budget to it, it could be done.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: That is where I am coming from. The complaint I am getting in rural areas is that people are willing to pay in and do not want to have to wait for the national broadband plan. They want to get on with the job themselves but they are being held up by this process that has been going on for three and a half years with no sign of a contract. Where we started out with the contract is worlds...
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: The passage of time has made some of this process redundant.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: People might be surprised at me saying that. It might not be popular in some areas to say this is not necessarily the answer. However, my point is that a lot of this can be done by providers. How many premises are there in the country?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: When we started out, 850,000 were to be in the broadband plan. That figure is now down to approximately 550,000.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: Ms Lennon is also saying that if Eir's board of directors gave her a budget, she could take more out of that. Then there are the other companies.
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: Somebody suggested €3 billion for an ever-diminishing number. I get worried when I hear billions being mentioned and the need for the contract. We have seen documents. There is a cohort that can only get it with State support; we accept that. However, there are other ways. When people were not able to get water, they set up group water schemes and got grants. It is even simpler...
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: Is that download or upload?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: What would the upload speed be?
- Public Accounts Committee: Eir (14 Feb 2019)
Seán Fleming: We are now talking about what is envisaged by the contract for those who get it might be 100 Mbps download and what upload speed? What was it when Eir last left the table?