Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The tendering process under the national broadband plan, NBP, has been chaotic, to say the least. The big players, namely, Eir, the ESB and Vodafone, have pulled out. SSE Airtricity has left the consortium led by Mr. David McCourt. The John Laing Group, which was one of the companies providing cash and firepower, is also gone and Enet has been relegated to the role of a subcontractor in the process. Just one company remains in the process and all the others are gone. The State, which owns Enet, is to become a subcontractor to a private venture firm from America but will bankroll the project. It is essentially becoming an employee of a venture capital company. It is absolutely bizarre that we are in this position.

To add to this, there are serious questions about the contact between the Minister responsible for the process, Deputy Naughten, and the head of the sole remaining consortium, Mr. David McCourt. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment facilitated a lunch in Leinster House for Mr. McCourt and his family in April, paid for by the Minister. That was on the same day he was answering questions in the Chamber about inappropriate contact regarding the takeover of Celtic Media Group by Independent News & Media, INM. The Minister later met Mr. McCourt in June and he also met him at a dinner in New York in July. All of that happened at a crucial point in the tendering process. The Minister has acknowledged that the process was in its final stages. He has said that he did not discuss the process with Mr. McCourt at the dinner in New York, that he was at the table but that the officials were engaged in the discussion. That is simply unbelievable. Information on the discussion is contained in the minutes. This is despite the communications protocol for the process, which is laid out in black and white, stating that officials from the Department outside the team involved in the process could not meet the bidders at any time. It is protocol No. 1 on page No. 7 and it states that it should not happen. It is forbidden. The protocol is there for particular reasons.

While the Minister may not have been part of the discussion, as he claims, he was at the table. It is clear that he breached his own rules. He says that he did not, but the rule is laid out in black and white for everybody to see and it shows that he did. The Taoiseach said this morning that he has full confidence in him. Frankly, the process has gone from chaotic to farcical. All the while there are significant doubts about the capacity of this consortium to deliver. Leaving aside the inappropriate contact between the Minister and Mr. McCourt, there is no evidence that we are any closer to knowing when the roll-out will begin and whether the Government has a plan B to deliver broadband to the 542,000 households if this process falls apart.

Has the Tánaiste spoken to the Minister about his contact with Mr. McCourt? Were there just those three contacts with that individual over the past year or 18 months? Does the Tánaiste accept that the Minister breached his own protocols, set out in black and white, in respect of the tendering process? Does he have full confidence in the Minister? Would he do what the Minister has done, which is meet with a person who is involved in a serious bid worth €500 million, facilitate his family in private dining and meet him where issues were discussed? Finally, will the Tánaiste ensure that the minutes of the meeting of 28 June, which we discovered yesterday, are published in advance of the Minister coming to the House so that Members of the Opposition can thoroughly question and tease out aspects of that meeting?

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