Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

What has happened here today is bizarre. The Minister became a prisoner of this process. I spoke to him many times, inside and outside the House and in committee, about the dangers of the process he was getting into. We entered into a tendering process, supported by Fianna Fáil at the start, that went down a completely privatised route. The successful bidder would own the infrastructure after 25 years, subvented by a blank cheque from the taxpayer over that 25-year period. That has led us to this.

Another factor has led us to this. On the day of the press conference announcing that 300,000 households and businesses would be serviced by Eir, which would be allowed to cherry-pick the 300,000 easiest-to-reach households out of the 840,000 that had to be serviced, I told Deputy Naughten that the process had been seriously wounded. That was the second major blow to the process. We are now left with 540,000 hard-to-reach households.

I am on the record saying this many times in the House. Unless there is massive bankrolling by the State and the taxpayer, that cannot be done. ESB and Vodafone's SIRO consortium pulled out. Eir pulled out because it got what it wanted. That firm has created a doughnut around every town in this country. I do not know if those on the Government benches have looked at the maps. Eir picked up groups of houses, but the harder-to-reach businesses, houses and farms are not in the loop.

Bit by bit this has collapsed, and now one bidder is left. At the second press conference in Buswells Hotel, I confronted Deputy Naughten and pointed out to him that if one goes to the market to sell something and there is one buyer, the buyer names the price. If any Members have ever gone to a mart or market, they know what goes on. That is how simple it is. This is basic economics. Then we were left in a situation where that particular consortium flip-flopped and changed. It has now changed to be unrecognisable from what it was just six months ago. Now there is one venture capitalist upon whom the future of the Government and the broadband plan hangs, not just that of Deputy Naughten. That is the simple fact. The Government has allowed itself to be boxed into this situation. That is where we are today. That is why Deputy Naughten was compromised.

I do not believe Deputy Naughten is corrupt. However, he made a serious mistake in meeting Mr. McCourt and holding discussions. Before the committee, he admitted to holding discussions with him from last February. Then there was the dinner to which Mr. McCourt was invited in Leinster House and two other meetings that were subsequently revealed. Deputy Naughten admitted to me yesterday that he went to New York at Mr. McCourt's invitation. Mr. McCourt sought to meet me this week. I refused, and I am only an Opposition spokesperson on communications. I have no skin in this game but I thought it was the right thing to do. It would be improper to meet him at this stage in the process. This tendering process is at a delicate stage. We have arrived at an unfortunate situation. I have sympathy for Deputy Naughten over what has happened. I have a series of questions. If Deputy Naughten has resigned, who is representing the Government? Where is the Taoiseach?

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