Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

In terms of MANs, the Analysys Mason report talked about having received several complaints. Some of those would have been submissions and some would have been complaints. One of the entities that we talked to this morning confirmed that it had made submissions. Some of those issues have been captured in the report. Predominantly, it would have been to do with pricing and transparency, and also the non-separation of the wholesale and retail business, which were very valid complaints. Obviously the complaints were picked up in this report because they were valid. We heard from a number of entities here today. Two and possibly three of them said that they would have bid had the MANs concessionary contract been openly tendered.

Enet had a contract with a clause that allowed it to continue. There was a report by the Department, but it is entirely appropriate for members to ask a question on what happened to the tender process. There was an expectation that the tender process would have occurred. We expressed our surprise and disappointment today that this did not happen.

Does Mr. McCarthy accept that he is operating in a commercial world and in that world, people bid for tenders all the time. Enet bid for the tender in 2004 and 2009 and some of the rules changed during that time. Does he accept that there was not a clear-cut relationship between the retail and wholesale entities, which has been picked up?