Mr. Eamonn Molloy:

The Deputy raised the issue of whether answers to the Commission from the Department remained outstanding. I hope I have reassured him on that point.

Turnover bars have not been an impediment for companies of all sizes in participating in the Eircode consortium. I will ask one of my colleagues to reflect on the way in which the consortium is structured.

The Deputy asked a fair question about why we would establish financial and technical benchmarks for a project. He made the point better than I could have explained it. This is a significant project that is national in scale and involves a considerable investment not only on the part of the State but also the business sector. The key issue is getting the project up and running. The use of turnover limits is not unusual in the procurement of projects of this type; in fact, they are reasonably advisable. On whether we set out implicitly or explicitly to stop people from participating, I cannot say there is evidence of that happening because it was never our intention to do so and it was never the effect of what we did.