John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

For years in Waterford, if this makes any sense, the port in Waterford was suing CIE until somebody realised, after Ministers got involved to no avail, that they were effectively two State bodies. People asked the very realistic and reasonable question, "Why the hell is the State spending millions of euro, time and energy dealing with something that involves two State bodies?" The people we are writing to are in this building. Notwithstanding everything you have said, which makes a great deal of sense, could the chairmen of the two entities have a chat? Could the clerks of both committees try to figure out some middle ground on this, before we end up in a protracted legalistic nightmare? We are dealing with an entity that is within the walls of this building.

When we get to this point, there may be no return, that is, when we start to involve senior counsel in an exercise like this, in particular one which involves an entity with which we share a building. We are going too far and need to stop and maybe have some conversations privately to see if we can find some middle ground before we go any further.