Two months after National Broadband Ireland’s first accounts raised multiple questions, the company sits down with The Currency and provides answers including its full list of shareholders and the conditions attached to controversial loan funding.
The government has provided some answers to the questions surrounding the financial structure of NBI, including conditions for the debt funding provided by private investors and the calculation of fees paid to a company controlled by David McCourt.
The Department of Communication has declined a fresh freedom of information request for the full National Broadband Plan contract. Its response reveals the volume of documents kept secret and the fact that the contract has changed multiple times since it was signed.
New financial information adds complexity to the structure of loans advanced by investors in National Broadband Ireland, whose chairman David McCourt is now separately borrowing against related assets.
The government has been at pains to answer questions from the opposition on the capital structure of National Broadband Ireland. Misrepresentation of The Currency’s reporting did not help clarify matters.
The unsteady financial structure of National Broadband Ireland is set to undergo scrutiny in the Dáil as it continues to collect subsidies from a maximum €2.97 billion pot of taxpayers’ money.
The financial details and the appointment of corporate restructuring advisors revealed by The Currency this week raise serious questions about the future of the National Broadband Plan. They could have been addressed earlier if the project was not so opaque.
After three days of revelations on its finances, National Broadband Ireland is set for a restructure as the firm of its chairman David McCourt appoints an international investment bank to explore a new capital structure.
Before National Broadband Ireland delivered its first connection, it started spending money on another priority: Payments to companies controlled by its own investors.
Despite repeated government pronouncements that private investors in the National Broadband Plan would inject their own money first, after one year they had provided just half of the amount promised – and charged hefty interest for it.
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