Results 13,081-13,100 of 26,610 for speaker:David Cullinane

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: It states one of the advantages is that it would increase competition in the private sector and reduce costs. As that did not happen, I do not know how Mr. Griffin can then say it was the best option.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: By the same company that undertook the initial one.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: It is two and a half years later and we still do not have any contract signed. Therefore, we have to make a decision on whether the good people about whom Mr. Griffin spoke - I am sure they are good people - arrived at the right decision. In my opening remarks I said there was a perception that the entire project had become a bit of a mess. That is the backdrop to this conversation. We...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: There is a tendering process with one bidder left. I take it Mr. Griffin cannot give us the cost at this point in time. When will we know what the estimated liability for the State will be? Let us imagine that at some point next year a contract will be assigned-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: Mr. Ó hÓbáin spoke earlier in some detail about the nature of the contract, which I will get to in a second. The witnesses might not be in a position to tell us the cost now. There have been several newspaper articles, such as the one in The Irish Times, which estimated the cost at between €1.5 billion and €3 billion. It could be less or it could be more; we do...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: So we will know then. I have just one more question. It says on the screen under disadvantages that the State will receive no stake in the ownership of the infrastructure at the end of the contract, despite having contributed significant sums of money towards its construction. Mr. Ó hÓbáin dealt with this earlier. The second last speaker talked about what would happen after...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: Could Mr. Ó hÓbáin stop for one second? Perhaps I am wrong in my analysis of the advantages and disadvantages but it is stated that the State will receive no stake in the ownership of the infrastructure at the end of the contract. Is that the case with this contract?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: Let us just say that everything works out and the contract is up in 25 years. Is it the company then that owns the infrastructure, and at that point can it sell it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: We spoke earlier about the metropolitan area networks, MANs, contracts and the options that were on the table to extend or retender. I think extend was the chosen option. What happens in this situation? Would there be a possibility at any point to renegotiate or retender the contract in terms of costs, given that there is only one bidder who would potentially have the State over a barrel...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: I am asking if there is any possibility that at some point over the 25 years the company could try to renegotiate elements of the contract.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: Mr. Ó hÓbáin gave a glimpse earlier of the considerable detail of the contracts. He referred to technical solutions, updating technology, payment milestones, clawback mechanisms, oversight and importantly he said the contract itself could act as a form of regulation; that in effect it would be almost like a regulator. Could he explain that to me again?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: At what point would Mr. Griffin, as an Accounting Officer, come before the Committee of Public Accounts and perhaps answer more detailed questions as to the full extent of the contract? The Chairman put the question earlier. We have asked for the contracts before and it is unlikely that we will ever get a copy of the contract although perhaps we will sometime in the future. At what point...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: It would be useful for us because, given what a previous speaker said, what we have tended to do in lots of these areas is to look back. Here is probably one of the first opportunities we have had to look at a project of this scale. How many other contracts based on a gap-funding model has the Department overseen in the past?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: Did the Department get learnings from it?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: I do not believe everything I read in the newspapers, but that is the reason the witnesses are here to put the stories to the test to see if they are true. On 9 November, The Irish Times quotes the overall cost of the national broadband plan as being somewhere between €1.5 billion and €3 billion. Mr. Griffin is not going to respond to that. It stated the uptake for Eir's...

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: What is the figure?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: Is it about 20%.

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: As the target is 20% for Eir's fibre to the home initiative, what is the uptake target in the national broadband plan?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: Yes. I am not saying that target is real. Based on the 20% uptake, which seems quite low, what are the uptake targets in the national broadband plan? Earlier there was a conversation on total cost, the uptake and how much broadband would cost per household. What uptake target is envisaged by the Department?

Public Accounts Committee: 2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment
Chapter 8 - Measures relating to Cyber Security
Chapter 9 - Energy Efficiency National Fund (6 Dec 2018)

David Cullinane: I thank the witnesses for their responses. I appreciate the reasons Mr. Griffin cannot give us all of the information that we seek. We all appreciate that. This discussion has been a useful exercise. I thank him for giving a commitment to come back here again and, hopefully, he will be in a position to give us more information. I want to now ask questions about RTÉ. I am not sure...