Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----and if I were to say something here that would jeopardise that, Deputy Stanley would be the very one who would come in here and criticise me for that, and rightly so. The procurement team will appear before the committee on Thursday and the Deputy will have the opportunity to talk directly to the individuals involved in this process.

On the issue of public ownership, that was considered. In fact, it was debated at length here in the House. I gave the Deputy my views on my reasoning for the approach we took on that.

On the Eir 300,000 connections, I have explained the reason we took that decision but one of my most vocal critics, who has a good understanding of this particular process, is Adrian Weckler. It would be worth the Deputy's while to read the article he published in the Sunday Independentlast Sunday in which he clearly stated that the Government did not have a choice in that regard. What we did get, however, and which no other country in Europe in a similar situation in terms of other contracts got, was a binding commitment from Eir that has quarterly targets written into that and penalties for failing to achieve those targets. As I pointed out at the committee meeting last week, the European Commission outlined this as being a type of template that should and could be used by other member states in designing commitment agreements as part of procurement processes.

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