Results 1,921-1,940 of 2,990 for speaker:Ossian Smyth

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: There are 227 deployment areas. They do not match the boundaries of townlands. They split across many administrative boundaries. There is a situation where at the border of a deployment area, one house will be connected and another house is in a later phase. That is frustrating for anybody in that situation. That is a consequence of the design. Part of the design is that construction...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: I thank the Deputy. It is not a €3 billion contract; it is a €2.1 billion contract. I have read many estimates of what the cost is or is predicted to be and many different numbers are thrown around. The maximum expenditure on this contract will be €2.1 billion. That is what is in the contract. The contract was agreed in 2019, a year before I took office, and it is my...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: The Deputy asked how I can politically stand over it. I can politically stand over it because it will bring huge, tangible benefits all around the country. It is a fantastic project and it is comparable with rural electrification. If people want a home in Ireland nowadays, they want to know that they have home heating, running water, electricity and broadband. All of those will be...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: It is.

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: I expect we will have revised numbers within two weeks. As to whether it is a negotiation, I am saying that from my mindset. Everything in my life is a negotiation, even right now. The Deputy is right. The Government has this contract, which is a €2.1 billion contract, and it only pays out the money when the company meets the terms. That is where we are at the moment. The company...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: Within the next two weeks.

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: It is all very complex, both the construction and the funding. I will start with the construction. The Deputy talked about the different statuses. The first one is where people are being surveyed. The second is where their connection is under construction. The third is where it is available for pre-order and, in other words, people can be connected to the Internet within 90 days. The...

National Broadband Plan: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Ossian Smyth: I presume it is signed by the Minister. I will come back to the Deputy on any detailed questions about the contract.

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...

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...