Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sympathetic in terms of the amount of detail Deputy Ryan seeks. I will give him as much detail as possible, and when we come to Committee Stage I will do the same, but he has to realise that we are in a competitive situation. South Africa and France are watching what we are doing and saying and are competing with us for this particular bid.

We cannot reveal everything out in the open at the moment about what our plans are, what the money is going to go on and how much we are bidding for certain for the sponsorship rights. That would be absolute madness. Transparency is fine and let us be absolutely transparent, but let us not commit commercial suicide by saying we are doing this, that and the other. We might as well ask the South African and French Governments to come and look at the books so they can then go and bid just a little bit more. I can understand the point but it is not something we can do at the moment.

What we are being straightforward about is the guarantees we are giving, and the others are undoubtedly being asked for the same guarantees. We are being absolutely straightforward that we will pay the tournament fee of €120 million and we are being absolutely straightforward to World Rugby when they come here - I met them as well - about where our stadia are, what we are going to do with them and how much we are prepared to spend to upgrade them. However, do not expect us to tell the world what we are doing when there are other guys breathing down our throats and saying, "That is what they are doing. We will just bid them up by €1". That is not on. It is a never-never land and we are not going to go there, certainly not at the moment. That is not something the Deputy can possibly expect us to do.

Confidentiality is important at this stage. If we want to win this bid, it is very important that we stick to confidentiality. I will certainly give the Deputy what I can but I do not think it is realistic to ask the Rugby World Cup body to come in here next week at the Deputy's particular whim. They will not be able to answer the sort of questions he is going to ask them. Most of the stuff they are dealing with is confidential. Is the Deputy going to ask them what the French and the others are bidding? He might as well. Come on. This is a contest we want to win. It is not a contest we want to just throw away in the interests of some sort of political adventure.

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