Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I would like to ask, through the Leas-Ceann Comhairle, what the status of the motion will be if the Government is defeated on its amendment. If Fianna Fáil wins the day on this motion, is the Government obliged to carry out Fianna's Fail's ask, so to speak, and de factoconduct a review? I ask the Minister that if, in the event the Government is defeated, it is obliged to carry out the review being called for in the motion? It is a technical question but there is a little political edge to it also.

Tonight all Members received from the Minister, and I do not know if it was by accident or design, correspondence relating to the current situation that pertains to what some have called a fiasco. The correspondence is between Mr. Moat and the Minister, Deputy Naughten. I will quote from a letter dated 30 January addressed to the Minister in which Mr. Moat states:

eir entered the [national broadband process] NBP in good faith with the ambition of winning the entire tender. We have spent over €7m during the past 30 months and have fully engaged in the process. Notwithstanding our well-communicated 'red line' issues, eir remained in the process and submitted our ISDS in September in the hope that these issues would be addressed in the final months of the contract negotiation.

"Red line" is the key phrase there. In his response dated 31 January, the Minister stated:

When we met last Tuesday (23rd January 2018) my officials set out clearly that the completion of the draft contract negotiation phase of the project would not occur for several weeks yet. There was ample opportunity to continue to engage on outstanding "red line" issues, and it would, therefore, appear premature for eir to take a decision to exit the process. You indicated an Intent to consult further with your Board.

We know what happened subsequently. What is perplexing everyone in and out of the political realm is the question of how this transpired. How did it transpire that there were still red line issues at this stage of the process such that Eir, as one of the bidders, decided to pull out of the market? What were those red line issues? Everyone here and outside these walls wants to know. If we had some articulation from the Minister or his officials as to what the red line issues were without invoking the cloak of commercial sensitivity, it would be very helpful for us to further understand the ongoing process. What is very confusing for me and thousands of others is that not too terribly long ago a deal, as I understand it, was done to facilitate Eir to provide for an extra 300,000 houses and premises. In the intervening period, approximately 100,000 of those have been covered. The Minister will clarify that.

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