Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I asked the Taoiseach when the Minister, Deputy Noonan, informed him about his Department's deep concerns with the Siteserv sale and other IBRC deals. Last week the Taoiseach stated that he did not know anything about this. Today, if I understand him properly, he is telling us the matter was brought to his attention and to the attention of the Cabinet.

That begs the next question: what did the Taoiseach do about this? While he is valiantly giving the impression he is inquiring into these matters, he is in fact blocking a genuine independent investigation. We know, since it is on public record, that civil servants raised repeated and serious concerns about the sale of Siteserv and other deals.

I do not know how much these transactions cost, but one can presume they cost losses of hundreds of millions to taxpayers. We can also presume that the insiders gained by hundreds of millions. While all this was going on, a Siteserv subsidiary was granted the lucrative contract to install water meters. Was it on the advice of the consultants that Phil Hogan gave €85 million of taxpayers money to that contract? It is clear a certain privileged elite became even more wealthy as a result of the financial crisis in this State and that the Government facilitated this. It is also clear that the only way to find out what exactly happened is to establish a commission of investigation. Is not that the reason the Taoiseach will not set up an independent commission of investigation, because he does not want taxpayers, the electorate and citizens to know exactly what happened?

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