Joe O'Toole (Independent)

Before starting, I wish to make a point of order. The Committee on Procedure and Privileges recently considered situations such as this, where a Minister is allowed to continue over the time limit in a situation where other Members wish to contribute. It was the view of the CPP that the Chair should be entitled to allocate an additional number of minutes to the debate. I am not demanding that now but tonight is a clear example of why it is necessary.

I thank Senator Jim Walsh for sharing his time and compliment him on his approach to tolls, which appears to be that there should be a toll everywhere except in the south east. There is nothing wrong with that if one is trying to be elected there. However, he referred to a crucial issue. Much as we dislike what is on the M50, one cannot object to the point made by the Minister that a watertight contract has been signed. We can solve the other problems at one stage or another but there is no solution to that. We are stuck with the contract.

Let us focus on that and how it came about. Tribunals have been running in this country for years, dealing with a couple of million euro here and there. This contract involves about €1 billion. Somebody signed it on behalf of the State and somebody signed it on behalf of the county council at a cost of €1 billion to the Irish people. That should be examined. Who negotiated it? I know who signed it but I will speak about them shortly. What contact was made? We should examine the tendering process and hear from the State's lawyers and other lawyers about the validity of that contract and how it came to be concluded at that time.

The two people who signed it were the former Minister, Pádraig Flynn, and George Redmond, the former Dublin assistant city and county manager, whose names arose in another context in recent times. That is worth examining. I would like to be reassured as to how that contract was concluded. I cannot believe it is a coincidence. I believe a wrong has been done on the Irish people. We can argue about traffic forever and we might resolve some of the problems, but we cannot resolve the contract. We are stitched into it so we should try to find out how it was concluded. Who is responsible for making the decisions on tendering, drawing up the contract, signing it and so forth?