Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I hear what Mr. Griffin said about expecting members of the board to perform and to have robust exchanges,. The reality is, however, that when an issue arises in the context of the interests of the taxpayer and the interests of the State, it is the private entity that holds an awful lot of cards. We cannot just stop in the middle of the contract and move that entity off the pitch, no more than we can get the company that is involved in the children's hospital off the pitch halfway through the contract. We know that logic and logistics do not allow us to do that. The point I am making is that in those situations, the State and the taxpayer are in a more precarious situation because the share numbers are eight to one.