Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 36: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he received an advanced copy of the Moriarty report. [6648/11]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 42: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will issue an apology for the systemic failures in the process to award the GSM licence, as outlined in the Moriarty report, and the steps he plans to take to ensure that this never happens again. [6649/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 36 and 42 together.

I did not receive an advance copy of the Moriarty Report. I set out in some detail my comments in the course of the debate in this House last week. In my initial speech in the Debate I accepted that the Tribunal did make criticisms of the process and its administration by the then Department. The Tribunal did refer to systemic failures in the Department in their report but as I pointed out in my address last week this should be seen in the context of the Tribunal statement that the officials in question had no means of knowing the then Minister was conveying information to one of the bidders and no reason to suspect Mr. Lowry.

As the Deputy will be aware the system for issuing spectrum licences has changed fundamentally since the time of the second mobile phone licence competition. The administration of the competition for the award of spectrum licences is now a matter for the statutorily independent regulator ComReg. The latter in turn operates under an EU Regulatory framework which requires that the allocation and assignment of such radio frequencies is based on open, transparent and non-discriminatory procedures for the granting of the licence.

I would point out to the Deputy that the Government has directed Departments to examine the recommendations of the Tribunal and to report back on them with four weeks. In addition the Government will embark on a programme of major reform of political and public administration as set out in the Programme for Government.