Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Sorry, it is my question. On 6 December the Minister did not give that answer to the House. The Minister did not say that the dogs on the street and every Deputy in the House - presumably including the Minister - knew that this was where it was going to go. The Minister said that there was a whole menu of options. That is very different from the information the Minister provided to the lobbyist four weeks previous to that.

By the way, what about the conversation on 3 May 2017 at the data summit? There was small talk. There would be a little small talk. I am asking the Minister to indicate that all that happened in that conversation was small talk. Does the Minister believe that it is entirely credible that a conversation between the Minister and a senior executive of Independent News & Media at that stage in the process would simply be confined to small talk? Was that all it was?

The National Union of Journalists, NUJ, has just called for the 2012 finding that the 29.9% stake of Denis O'Brien in Independent News and Media, INM, is not a controlling interest to be reviewed. Does the Minister support that call? Does he believe there would have been a conflict of interest for Mr. Heneghan's company? He was lobbying for INM, was he not? Is he not on the compliance board of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland? Is there an issue there, in the Minister's opinion?

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