Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As stated by the Tánaiste, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, is to make a statement in the House this afternoon. I seek clarity from the Tánaiste on the central issue. Despite what the Taoiseach said in the House yesterday, it is inappropriate for a Minister to have any contact with a bidder during a procurement process, and every Minister knows this. As a former Minister with responsibility for procurement for five years, I note this was made this crystal clear and drilled into everybody. The Minister, Deputy Naughten, said that he has no hand, act or part in the bidding process. This displays a fundamental lack of understanding of his role under the Constitution and the law. The Minister is in charge of this procurement process, ultimately. Putting it mildly, in meeting the bidder he may have contaminated the process. He certainly has opened it up to legal challenge. We know that there has been three engagements involving the Minister, Deputy Naughten, and Mr. McCourt, whose investment firm is currently leading the broadband consortium that is bidding for the contract. The Minister, as we know, bought Mr. McCourt lunch in April. Bizarrely, at the same time he was standing in this Chamber to apologise for having taken a phone call from a lobbyist in another contract. The Minister told the House that everybody had his telephone number and that he took a call when he should not have done. The House gave him a fool's pardon at that stage. At the same time, he was arranging a lunch for a bidder in a bigger contract. The Minister had to be reminded by an official yesterday that he met Mr. McCourt on 26 June. There was no public announcement in this regard and, as has been said, the minutes of that meeting have not been released. We know that in the New York meeting, there was a discussion on this matter, although it is said that the Minister was not directly involved. It is taking it to extremes to say that there was a discussion on the matter between the bidder and officials and that while the Minister was sitting at the table, he was not involved in that discussion. This just is not how it works. Does the Tánaiste believe these meetings were appropriate? In light of the standards set by this Government, does he think that it was appropriate for the Minister, Deputy Naughten, to have these meetings?

We learned in recent days, that the former lead in the consortium, Enet, is now relegated to being a supplier and that the Irish Infrastructure Fund, a fund owned by the State, has bought Enet in its entirety. We now have the bizarre situation whereby the State is going to contract a private supplier - an investment company that has nothing do with telecoms - to hire a company, Enet, which the State owns, to provide broadband at a significant cost. Is the Tánaiste concerned about any of these matters?

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