Dáil debates

Thursday, 11 October 2018

Resignation of Minister: Statements

 

4:35 pm

Photo of Catherine MurphyCatherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On a personal level this is obviously a difficult day for Deputy Naughten and his family. He did not have any option but to resign given the information that we now have. I question the Peter Smyth report process and what exactly Mr. Smyth will examine. I echo the point made by Deputy Harty. I cannot make any sense of the consortium that has been in place since July. It raises obvious questions, including why the other two consortia dropped out of the tender process. What will Mr. Peter Smyth examine? Does it not raise questions that the remaining consortium is made up of subcontractors, including Nokia and Actavo, formerly Siteserv, that have no equity, or that the main bidder became a partner? None of this makes sense. It will be important to find out whether the previous consortia had the same access to the former Minister? That will tell us if there was an issue with the process early on because the previous consortia cited regulatory and governance issues. It is important that we get to that.

I also echo the point made about probity in connection with the Minister of State, Deputy Pat Breen. We have to hear from the Taoiseach on that. Gone are the days when decisions were made based on personal relationships. We put systems in place for very good reasons. Those systems must be abided by and we must have a transparent process that we and members of the public can have confidence in. Failing that, we will repeat the mistakes of the past. Please let us learn from history in respect of this experience and previous experiences. We need to hear from the Taoiseach on what this process involves. It must be a wider process in regard to engagement with the House because all of us are interested in it. There is not one Deputy who is not interested in the roll-out of the national broadband plan. We all agree that it is essential but it must be done in a way that people can have confidence in it.

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