Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The situation we are in now is thoroughly unsatisfactory. We, as the Opposition, came in with a series of questions regarding the NBP process and the relationship and meetings between the Minister, Deputy Naughten, with David McCourt. The Minister chose to resign and leave the Chamber but our questions remain and it is entirely appropriate that the Business Committee should meet and someone on behalf of the Government should have to come to the House to answer the questions that remain because the national broadband plan process still remains on track and is still moving despite the numerous problems that beset it.

We had not called for the resignation of the Minister but we thought he had serious questions to answer. He has chosen not to answer them but to pre-empt them with his resignation. This latest step of the scandal arose from Question Time yesterday, when it was fair for anyone in the Chamber to say that the Minister was evasive at best in answering questions that arose from a reply to Deputy Dooley regarding a lunch in the Members' restaurant on 18 April, the same day, ironically, the Minister was dealing in the Dáil with the previous scandal in which he was involved. The Minister is not here to defend himself but he chose not to be here to defend himself. He had to be asked three times before he gave an answer that furnished any information about the fact he was aware Mr. McCourt was in the building on that day. We had not called for his resignation but if further information had come out about it, for example any information that suggested he had met with Mr. McCourt on that day, his position would have been entirely untenable.

In any case, based on the information that was in the public domain, it was clear the Minister had broken the Department's rules, specifically relating to the NBP with regard to his interactions with Mr. McCourt. The rules are clear that meetings will only happen when absolutely necessary in exceptional circumstances and the Minister and departmental officials should try to avoid such interactions. The Minister accepted an invitation to attend a meeting on the explicit basis that the meeting was to reassure Mr. McCourt that a series of concerns that had arisen regarding the bid tender had been resolved. It related explicitly to the bid; the Minister knew about this and agreed to have the meeting. It was entirely inappropriate and represented a breach of the rules.

It was also entirely inappropriate to host a birthday party in the Oireachtas for the daughter of the only bidder left standing for one of the biggest and most high-value tenders in the history of the State. The Minister will not answer these questions. That is fine. He has chosen to resign, but we still need someone to answer these questions. In the entire process of this broadband plan we have a litany of everything that is wrong with crony capitalism and capitalism fundamentally in Ireland. It is a process whereby something that should have been a public utility was put out to private tender. All the other bidders pulled out, the cost of the tender increased subsequently and listed in the background as either a major contractor or a partner is Denis O'Brien's Actavo, which has taken over from Siteserv. There just seemed to be open door access for people such as Mr. McCourt and his family to have birthday parties in the Oireachtas, in the halls of power absolutely inappropriately.

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