Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My question does not really relate to any of the intricacies Senator Craughwell has brought up. As the Minister of State will be well aware, Senator Craughwell has been raising this issue and the concerns he has about the contract week in, week out. The one thing that bothers me is not his tenaciousness but the fact that the more he digs the more he uncovers.

What really struck me, as a former Cabinet Minister, is the information that was uncovered and reported on in not only the Business Postbut also The Irish Timesduring the summer that the business case was prepared by a member of staff of the same company that applied for the contract in the last round of the tender. While that is absolutely outrageous, with Chinese whispers and all the excuses that have been given as to how one person in one office did not know what the other office was doing and how we kept them separate so there was no issue, I do take issue with the fact that Cabinet members were presented with the business case without being informed that the same company would potentially and, subsequently, actually apply for the tender. That company did not get the tender, but that is not the point.

Did the Minister for Transport or his predecessor go back to the Cabinet members who sat around the table and ask them if they would have made the decision to accept the business case on which the tender was then procured and created, knowing full well that it was by a member of staff whose organisation was going to apply for the tender? If that had happened around the table when I was there, I certainly would not have made that decision. It is incumbent on us now to go back to the Members who were at the Cabinet table at that time and who made that decision, not knowing that the business case was drafted by an organisation that then would be or could potentially be applying for the tender, and to ask them to review the business case again. That would put paid to the current tender. Given that this agency and this service, which acts on behalf of the State, is so important, however - and we can see how impactful it can be, not least the other weekend with the rescue of the gentleman who got caught in the cave - it is incredibly important that there is absolutely no ambiguity around the awarding of a contract and no sense of suspicion, which has been created in recent months and clearly highlighted by three of our leading newspapers on the back of the information Senator Craughwell has uncovered.