Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the options, the report talked about a window of opportunity of approximately five months before the full contract is signed. It goes through a number of options. Perhaps the Minister could comment on one of them, the negotiated procedure without prior publication. A number of those options were listed but no further detail was provided on four of them. Is it possible to cancel the contract now and go with that option of a negotiated procedure without prior publication? The Minister had said that the ESB was not an option but we are now told that the contractor could end up using the ESB network. How is it that it is not viable for the State to cancel the contract and use the ESB network when the private contractor who will sign the contract in five months could end up using that infrastructure itself?