Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Politics is a human endeavour and on a personal basis this is a difficult day for Deputy Denis Naughten and his friends and family. After the mire of controversy more than 20 years ago that led to the Moriarty tribunal, we repeatedly set out strict codes of conduct for how to handle any contract of the State and certainly any major procurement, right down to individual projects. It is crystal clear to everybody that decision makers, and ultimately the Minister is responsible in a Department, cannot have direct contact with bidders. In the last 24 hours I spoke to a person who was involved with procurement. The person said that they would actually cross the road if they saw somebody involved in the bidding process coming towards them. That level of care has been seared into the public service in respect of the awarding of contracts as a result of the very damaging things that happened in the State 20 years ago. It was disquieting, to put it at its mildest, that there was this series of contacts. On a personal basis, I know Deputy Denis Naughten to be a most honourable man and I have known him for many years. He did the right thing by standing aside.

The Taoiseach said that rural broadband, the project of the national broadband plan, is the most important infrastructure project for the Government. It is the most important infrastructure project for Ireland, particularly rural Ireland, but where are we now? As I said last year, allowing 300,000 of the potential clients of the broadband plan to be taken out by Eir was a fatal blow to the plan. Subsequent to that many of the bidders withdrew. The Taoiseach is left with a consortium that resembles Lanigan's ball because at any given point one is not sure who is part of it. I was really confused when the lead bidder, Enet, suddenly became a supplier and the lead bidder became a consortium led by a US-based finance house. For the people of Ireland, the most fundamental question is: what is the current position of the broadband plan? The Taoiseach's response so far is that a review of the probity of the process to date is to be carried out by an ethics person. That is not good enough. There must be a clear direction from the Taoiseach very quickly on how this plan is to be put back in place. There is no need for an expert in probity.

The Tánaiste is sitting beside the Taoiseach.

It is odd that this morning the line taken by the Tánaiste was strongly in defence of what happened despite that the Taoiseach effectively fired former Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, last night when he asked him to consider his position. We now need to accept that what has happened to date has undermined the broadband plan and we need to work collectively to get the plan back on track. The most important outcome in terms of this debacle must be that the many people in rural Ireland, including in my constituency and across every county, who are crying out for equality in terms of broadband connectivity will be connected. I hope that Deputy Bruton, who has been appointed as Minister on a temporary basis, will quickly acquaint himself with all of the elements and come back to the House in the coming days with a set of solutions regarding the provision of rural broadband.

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