Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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450. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the 14 areas in which a contingency can be paid under the terms of the contract for the national broadband plan; and the capped subsidy for each of the contingency payments. [46386/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The contingency fund within the NBP subsidy can only be drawn down in 14 specific circumstances, both during the deployment period and after the deployment is completed. This contingency fund can only be sought by NBI where additional, unanticipated costs have been proven to have occured for these specific circumstances.

The contingency fund is capped at €480m (excluding VAT) with caps for specific categories or groups of categories and with the risk of additional costs resting with NBI.

These categories are primarily construction related, for example relating to the state or condition of existing infrastructure in the intervention area which will only be fully established when on site surveys are conducted by NBI.

The contract includes very detailed provisions governing the conditions that would apply in the case of any request to access the contingency subsidy related to any of the 14 categories.

The amount of subsidy as well as the specific terms and conditions under which NBI may seek access to this contingency subsidy are commercially sensitive as, for example, it could influence commercial operator actions in the wider market.