Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

If the process goes ahead to a specific design and build specification, whatever about the commercial operation, is the Minister indicating that Dublin City Council will have a specifically designed plant parented by a company that has now basically abandoned it? Will Dublin City Council have the responsibility of offering this out for auction or tender to a yet to be determined operator which would be asked to come in to run a plant which it had no part in designing or specifying? Does the Minister seriously believe the market will respond to this?

One of the first of my points was that the planning process surely had to be aborted if the synergies implicit in a public private partnership were lost. This is where bodies are invited to tender for a design, build and operation process, with people having control over the design and the ability to see the economies of its operation. If I understand the Minister correctly, he is saying that Mr. Matt Twomey can get planning permission for a plant designed by a certain company, which has now gone off the pitch, and proceed to offer this for tender by anybody to operate the plant on that basis.

We may need time to reflect on this and I do not necessarily expect the Minister to have all the information. If that is the case we could end up with nobody tendering to run somebody else's child. We could end up with An Bord Pleanála and the EPA, among many others, wasting much time proof-reading something that will never fly because there will never be a new pilot to fly it.

Can the Minister find out what the case is? It will be clarified if tomorrow's outcome is as the Minister anticipates. I know he cannot comment on that.

If it comes to the point of Elsam walking away, then it is back to the drawing board. We should not waste more money. An Bord Pleanála personnel are up to their tonsils trying to deal with major infrastructure and it would be the height of irresponsibility to allow this project to proceed in the knowledge that it would never fly.

See this speech in context