Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important to bear in mind that it was open to any bidder to enter the process. As Deputy Stanley is aware, the ESB was previously part of a consortium. There is no sense in which anyone was excluded, State-owned or otherwise. It is also important to bear in mind that under state aid rules, state aid cannot be given to a commercial venture. State aid cannot be given to either a private company operating a commercial business nor to a state company operating in a commercial world. They are the rules of state aid. Because of that rule, Eir was entitled to make a request that it would deliver commercially an element of the process. There was an obligation under state aid rules to accept that offer. That is a different point to Deputy Stanley's suggestion that we cannot have a State commercial company. Of course we can have a State commercial company such as the ESB, but we cannot give state aid to such a company. They are the rules of state aid. There is a clear distinction here.

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