Mr. Peter Smyth:

I do not believe the Minister either interfered or attempted to interfere in the process. I am pretty unequivocal about that. It is reasonable to state that he had information which would have been of benefit to the bidder. However, the nature of the dialogue process meant the time lag between the Minister having that information and the bidder having it was minimal if not almost non-existent. The information was being passed almost in real time because of the way the dialogue process was being carried out.