Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I asked my officials to contact the Quinn Group last week when I knew I would be bringing proposals to Cabinet yesterday. I met Mr. Quinn and his chief executive officer on Monday. I welcomed that the group had entered the market. I informed them that we had a loophole that we could not sustain. I was not in a position to tell them or anybody else what we would do. I did meet the Quinn group on Monday evening. I felt that it would have been discourteous when I was about to bring in legislation not to have met the only player to come into the market. I had met all the other players on many occasions, VIVAS and the VHI and so on.