Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

When I was Minister, we delivered the MANs. The model used was that the Department managed the overall contract development or the delivery. The Department was the central co-ordinator of all these contracting companies and delivered the networks. In a sense, the Department played the role that Granahan McCourt is playing, namely, it managed the contractors. Given that we are paying €10 million a year for that Department, that it has real expertise, experience and capability in this area and that it has managed the bidding process over seven years, there are no better people in the world to deliver this type of project than those sitting in front of me. Did they not at any stage think that they could do it themselves in the same way they delivered the MANs previously?