Mr. John O'Sullivan:

The first aspect with which I have an issue is that it was not advertised publicly. When I read the law I presumed the sale of State assets would be advertised publicly. As it is not specifically laid out that it should be so advertised, legally, the company is right but, morally, it is totally and utterly wrong. The two companies Údarás picked out were Setalg in France and Acadian in Canada. Setalg is part of the Roullier group which was fined €60 million in 2011 for running a cartel. It was the first choice of Údarás. Acadian has engaged in highly unethical advertising campaigns against Irish companies. I have mentioned this previously. The evidence is available and the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

There is a third aspect with which I have an issue.

We were not allowed into the sales process initially; we had to battle to get into it. One of the Údarás personnel demanded €2 million in funding before we would be allowed in. We got past that hurdle and then we had 12 days to prepare a submission. Setalg and Acadian had over a year, if not two or three years, to prepare their submission; we got 12 days.

We were told when we met Údarás that the up-front price was not relevant - that it was secondary. The most important aspect was the plan. We took their guidance. If we had been buying it and it did not matter what we were doing with it afterwards, we would have put in an up-front price, but we concentrated on the post-development plan, which was to double the size of Arramara. That included driers, an indirect heating system, and research on the animal feed business to bring it up the value chain. We bid €1.5 million for the up-front price, with €4.2 million in the post-investment phase, bringing it up to a total of €5.7 million. As far as I am aware, Acadian bid €1.8 million - I have no idea of the post-investment process - and Setalg bid €2 million.

As far as I am aware, when the final bids were in the rating was changed. A rating of 3 was given to the up-front bids and a rating of 1 given to the rest. We have never seen the three bids. I have spoken to Ministers. I have written to both the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy McGinley and Deputy Deenihan, yet I have not got any information on the bids for each of the places. The lack of transparency, and the lack of patriotism, were frightening. It made me disillusioned with the Irish language, with Údarás na Gaeltachta, and with our political system. This is our first opportunity to speak in public. We could have gone to the newspapers but we decided it was more ethical to work through the system. We were wasting our time. The only people who get anywhere in this country are those in the newspapers. Otherwise, we are wasting our time.