You allowed Deputy Rabbitte time. Will the Taoiseach agree that the Cablelink contract was one of the most valuable disposals of an asset belonging to the Irish people that has taken place in recent times? Will he agree that if in any other democracy it transpired that an adviser in the Prime Minister's office was closely connected with the consultant to the successful contractor that would be a matter of the gravest concern? Will he accept that a Prime Minister in any other democracy would accept personal responsibility for the omissions and acts of his own personal staff if not at least for more remote official staff? Will he agree he has personally failed in a grievous way in the supervision of his own office in this regard?

The Deputy is going on far too long. If the Deputy continues I will bring the matter to a close.

There are two more questions I wish to ask.

That is two too many.

Is it the case that the Taoiseach – if I heard him correctly – met NTL on three occasions: first, in Belfast, second, at a luncheon in La Stampa and subsequently at a meeting? To whom were the minutes of those discussions cir culated? What was Mr. Duffy doing circulating a memo to other Government Departments about the Gaiety Theatre, while he was already an adviser? Is it normal for special advisers in the Taoiseach's Department on their own authority to circulate documents on behalf of the Taoiseach's office?

Dillon's was not, as Deputy Bruton purports to make it, the main drivers of NTL. They were press people who organised press events for Dillon. Dillon, in the case of the contact with Mr. Duffy, was a press person normally associated with his own agency and was not even a Dillon's person. Nobody from NTL was involved in any of the matters in which Mr. Duffy was involved. On the question of what Mr. Duffy was doing on the cultural aspects, he had a particular expertise which is well recognised outside the House. They were looking at useful proposals and he put forward one in connection with opera. It was not a Government memorandum as such. What was the Deputy's last question?

I asked about the luncheon at La Stampa and so on.

The Deputy has got that all wrong. I did not have lunch in La Stampa. That related to a meeting he had in Dillon's. I had three meetings. I met a met Mr. Lamont who was vice-president of the Belfast Chamber of Commerce in January 1998 when I addressed matters in Northern Ireland on the occasion of the forum when all leaders in the North were invited to a lunch. I addressed the first one. The second was the meeting in my office when all the senior NTL people made a presentation. The third was in Portmarnock, Deputy Owen's constituency, I am sure she was there—

I was not there.

—when the loop around the country was being brought ashore on Portmarnock beach.

That concludes the Taoiseach's Question Time. We must proceed to questions nominated for priority.