Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a question to ask the Minister he has not answered. The Minister met the one remaining bidder at a crucial point in the tendering process, in the final stages according to what he has himself said. Who sought the meeting? Was it the Minister or was it David McCourt who sought the meeting? Did the Minister have Cabinet approval and did he brief the Cabinet afterwards? What was the purpose of that meeting? That is what we all want to know.

I am glad to see that Fianna Fáil has moved a little bit towards the Sinn Féin position and they are now talking about public infrastructure. It is good if we can get on to that ground. We have public infrastructure. We have the MANs system that is owned by the State and operated by enet, which the State now owns. The Minister might confirm the State owns enet 100% since yesterday after buying the remaining 28% share. There is the metropolitan area network, the ESB network, and the backhaul system where there are cables running along railway tracks parallel to water systems, motorways etc which are owned by the State. I have looked at the map of it and it is extensive. There is the State hardware and the roadway to roll out this. Even if the Minister is successful with this, and a contract is signed with the remaining bidder-----

See this speech in context