Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

An event took place between the former Minister and a number of officials from the Department in the summer of 2018 or thereabouts. There was a discussion at that meeting, which was minuted, which talks about the make-up or potential change in the consortium. Frank McCourt of McCourt Global LLC was present. Subsequently, his company was relied on to act as a guarantor or to assist Granahan McCourt and David McCourt still being a qualifying bidder. The process auditor who investigated this, to the best of my recollection, never interviewed Frank McCourt and perhaps assumed that he just happened to be having lunch with his brother for the purpose of welcoming the Minister to New York. I do not know. Peter Smyth did not carry out any analysis of the presence of Frank McCourt at that meeting. I am at a loss to understand what was the purpose of Frank McCourt's attendance. One would not have to be Einstein to figure out that soon afterwards, he gave a letter of undertaking to his brother to get him to pass a certain milestone within the broadband process. That does not look great. I certainly think there is an issue.

David McCourt's company, Granahan McCourt, started a process a long time ago. It changed in character and nature almost monthly. It was like "Lanigan's Ball", with companies going in and out. There were different points at which he relied on the financial strength or ability of another company. That allowed him to progress a stage further and then his brother said he was on his own and that he got him this far. Does Mr. Ó hÓbáin not think that this raises very serious questions about the capacity of the company to which he has decided to grant preferred bidder status? We understand that the risk being taken by all concerned is €175 million of capital investment. The Taoiseach told us in the Dáil Chamber today that this is being put in by Tetrad. David McCourt, the actor for Granahan McCourt, is not putting any money in. We have had this company come all the way through, bringing different people along, potentially providing money, and now it turns out that he has found a company but it is not his company. The State is still carrying all the risk. Will Mr. Ó hÓbáin confirm that the €175 million in capital is coming from Tetrad? Was the Taoiseach clear on that today?

We talked about the holding company. Is Tetrad a shareholder of the holding company? Is it held equally with Granahan McCourt? We understand that all the capital is coming from Tetrad. What is its share of the ownership of the holding company?