Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is unacceptable that a US investment fund should have the State over a barrel because of the fiasco of the process. We should draw a line under it, learn the lessons and start talking to the ESB or renationalise what is left of Eircom.

The idea that a US investment fund would charge €3 billion and then own the network is just beyond appalling. This is an absolutely predictable market failure on a massive level.

I agree, and we have said much the same as Fianna Fáil, about the need to use our semi-State bodies. I hope that Fianna Fáil will be humble enough to say that it made a mistake when it privatised Eircom. Let us admit that it was a mistake and recognise that "commercial operators will only invest so far", to quote the Minister of State. That is the key to understanding this fiasco. Unless we learn this lesson, we are doomed to repeat it over and over again. Let us get the State and its agencies and companies to deliver this essential infrastructure for rural Ireland.

See this speech in context