Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Earlier today we expressed no confidence in the Minister but it was primarily on the matter of climate change and we did not expect him to resign today only an hour later. I am sorry I was late in coming into the Chamber because I was attending a committee meeting and asking questions about broadband of our regulator. I was looking forward to asking questions about what we are going to do with the national broadband plan. These are the questions that needed to be asked today. It was not just about who the Minister met, why, where and when. That issue is complex and if Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin or others have a set position on what to do, it would be good to hear it. We will still have to resolve the question.

This is not an easy process. I was previously involved as a communications Minister in facilitating a competition for a national broadband scheme. It effectively ended up with a single bidder in the end. This experience tells me this is not an easy process but do it we must for the sake of rural Ireland. In my time as a Minister I met Mr. McCourt, who at the time was involved with some innovative investments in satellite telecommunications technology. I thought he was a good and innovative telecoms person so I will not speak ill of the man. I am providing that background information. I am not sure if Deputy Stanley has met Mr. McCourt or members of his team but I did and I know Deputy Dooley and others have done so. It is part of our job and we must become informed because we are helping to set policy. This is with the goal of addressing the question of what we do with the national broadband plan. Should we do it blind or should we try to get some understanding of it?

It was inappropriate for the former Minister to have a dinner with Mr. McCourt and pay for the lunch but this is a difficult process because politics is involved. Politics is involved with deciding whether to use Eir poles or the ESB poles. There is politics involved in getting access to land.

Politics is involved because we are on both sides of any deal. We still own or have just bought Enet again. Managing the separation of proper independent decision making and making decisions for the public good, saving money and making sure we get the best outcome for the people was always going to be a difficult political issue. This Dáil, or the next one, will still have the responsibility of doing this and I do not think going back to zero is necessarily the best outcome. Some might believe that. If that is the case, fine, set it out and we will make that decision as a Dáil but that is still a key decision ahead of us.

I will be honest. As so often happens in this world, politics trumps everything. What has happened today politically trumps any part of the assessment of the technological or economic merits of what we do with our national broadband plan because what we heard today about a Taoiseach, in advance of this sitting, effectively saying "that's it, you're gone" by not expressing confidence is the real story today. The Minister's lines could not have been more dramatic in terms of this being about opinion polls, not telecoms poles, and optics rather than fibre optics. They are about the most stunning words I have heard a Minister say as he walks out the door having resigned. What is really noticeable is the empty seat beside the Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor. The absence of any Fine Gael Front Bench Ministers from the start of the former Minister's speech says more than anything. I know the Government Chief Whip was here. I do not know if he is still here. I saw him talking to the Ceann Comhairle. Perhaps the Ceann Comhairle can provide some information. Will the Government make a statement before the House? This is politics now. We can put aside a lot of the technical details. It is the real politics of what is happening. The question one would ask this afternoon is whether we have a Government.

I feel sorry for the former Minister. We did not have confidence in him - despite his citation of all the great things he has done - because we think the Government is not delivering. It is a "do nothing" Government in so many areas about which we have concerns. They are not all bad, obviously. They are good people, as is Deputy Naughten, but the future of the Government hangs in the balance this afternoon, which is the real story that we need to get to the bottom of and if we can, make sure that whatever we do, rural Ireland is protected in terms of whatever rural broadband plan we end up delivering for it. This is not easy. It is still a complicated political process.

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