I wish to be associated with you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, in terms of the sad passing of the former Deputy, Micheál Lynch, with whom I served for a brief period in the House. He was an outstanding Deputy and a great cultural man and musician. I know the people of Oldcastle and his family will be grieving today at the loss of such a wonderful and warm person.

There has been understandable concern and anger in respect of the broadband announcement by Government, especially in respect of the escalating costs of up to €3 billion to the taxpayer and, crucially, the capacity of the remaining sole bidder to deliver the project. We have seen shifting sands in respect of the composition of the consortium and the financial guarantees from various entities to underpin the project. I put it to the Taoiseach that the Government is not being fully transparent in respect of these financial guarantees and the relationship between Granahan McCourt Capital, GMC, and the various entities, including Tetrad and McCourt Global.

There has been a drip-feed of information from Government on this as a result of tenacious work by journalists and politicians. Last week, Deputy Cowen was told that there were three investors in the project, namely, GMC, Tetrad and McCourt Global. Yesterday, Deputy Dooley was told that both Tetrad Corporation and McCourt Global reiterated their support of the final tender. Then, last night, further written replies came in saying it was only Tetrad and GMC. Deputy Dooley was also told that Tetrad provided a commitment letter in respect of the equity only required for the project. In other words, it will contractualise a legal underpinning of €175 million from the lead bidder. This is a far cry from the figure of €2.4 billion, a figure the Taoiseach gave the impression to the House some time ago that it would be putting in. There is no legal lien on that, from what we can see. There has been a lack of clarity on all of these issues and there are no legal guarantees in respect of that. Last night, a written reply came in saying there were now only two investors.

I put it to the Taoiseach that in hindsight the meeting held on 16 July 2018 in New York between the former Minister, Deputy Naughten, and David McCourt and Frank McCourt was actually quite significant. It was one month before the deadline for guarantees of financial underpinning and the consortium had to be submitted. The deadline was 15 August. Four serious issues were discussed in respect of the project. There was a need for a permanent Irish-based leadership position. The importance of the 15 August 2018 deadline was relevant, as was the need for the necessary financing to be in place at the time. The minutes state that the deadline would be met and that the need for any changes in the make-up of the consortium should be avoided or, if necessary, kept to a minimum. It was stated that the importance of this issue was understood by the consortium. The consortium had been advised by Arthur Cox that as long as its lead bidder remained unchanged then such changes should not necessitate any delay. We now know of course that there was a change in the leader bidder from Enet to GMC. There was a change in the lead bidder and the consortium. There was a change in those financially underpinning the project too. There has been an impression since that McCourt Global has been in this from the very beginning. McCourt Global is saying it was not involved in this in any shape or form.

I call on the Taoiseach to respond.

Frank McCourt was at that meeting. The former Minister, Deputy Naughten, had to resign. He has been less than forthcoming. He has gone silent. He is not available to comment on this. I put it to the Taoiseach that it is important for him to talk to the former Minister and get him to give a comprehensive and transparent statement in terms of all of these meetings.

The Taoiseach might confirm for me whether Peter Smyth, during his inquiries, spoke to Frank McCourt. Where will ultimate liability fall if the plan fails? If Granahan McCourt Dublin (Ireland) Limited folded, would it fall on Tetra Corporation to provide the equity for National Broadband Ireland?

I do not think there is anything new in the fact that the composition of the consortium changed over time. That is all information we have all been aware of for many months.

I was not at that dinner. No member of the current Government was at that dinner. The former Minister, Deputy Naughten, was but I cannot answer questions on his behalf. In any event I am confident that all of this was covered in the independent report on this matter carried out by Peter Smyth some months ago. That is published and in the public domain.

As for the financial guarantees, National Broadband Ireland will make available €220 million in equity and working capital upfront. This will be legally required by the contract, which is being finalised. There is no upfront contribution from the taxpayer. The taxpayer only contributes after the fibre is deployed and homes are passed and subsequently connected. The total cost of the project is between €5 and €6 billion, including VAT and contingences, with roughly half coming from the State in the form of the Exchequer subsidy and the other half from the investor and commercial revenues.

The Deputy asked about the upfront contribution. A total of €175 million comes from Tetrad Corporation and the rest from Granahan McCourt Dublin (Ireland) Limited. The funding commitments will be contracted in advance of the contract award and any committed funding that has not been drawn down by National Broadband Ireland at financial close will require a guarantee in a form that is acceptable to the Department. This is standard practice for large-scale procurements.

McCourt Global LLC is one of two companies on which the bidder relied to demonstrate its capacity to meet financial and economic criteria at pre-qualification stage. The other company was Tetrad Corporation. Both companies provided the necessary letters of support at that point in the process. They were each assessed in respect of the financial and economic capacity and both passed. There is no issue with any bidder relying on the resources of other companies and requirements were set out for this in advance, in the project information and memorandum and the pre-qualification questionnaire, which were given to all bidders in 2016 and were published. This is a standard procurement procedure to ensure that appropriate financial capacity and guarantees are in place. All other bidders to the process would have sought to do the same. At final tender both Tetrad Corporation and McCourt Global LLC reiterated their support but Tetrad Corporation also provided an equity support letter in respect of the funds outlined in the bidder's funding plan. This means Tetrad has committed to the full equity amount. Decisions on the sources of funding, such as the decision to go with equity from Tetrad rather than McCourt Global, are matters for the bidder and the company.

A parliamentary question last week identified McCourt Global as the ultimate investor but I understand the Department has now corrected the record and has clarified any confusion in respect of the role of McCourt Global. The role of the company, as I outlined to the Dáil last week, is one of two entities relied on for pre-qualification.

It provided a letter of support. At final tender, the equity commitments were provided by Tetrad. I am sure the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment will be happy to clarify any further issues or answer any further questions in this regard.

This is all very unsatisfactory. All of this has all been dragged from the Taoiseach over the past number of weeks and he has been less than transparent on it. He cannot go on being as detached as he is. A former Minister who was responsible for this project and this tender met the preferred bidder on a number of occasions.

He was abandoned.

We were led to believe they were all innocent dinners or personal lunches, but they were not. The Taoiseach needs to come off it. He cannot stand up here as Taoiseach of this country and say that no one in the current Government is involved. For God's sake, Deputy Naughten was a former Minister in the Taoiseach's Government, and the Taoiseach still depends on him for support. Frank McCourt of McCourt Global was at that dinner, and he was not there talking about the weather. He was talking about this project and that was minuted. The official from the Department who was there was from the climate action section, not the section responsible for conducting the tender. That, again, was wrong and inappropriate, which I said at the time. The Taoiseach did not say it. He pretended he saw no evil until all the other dinners emerged, and Deputy Naughten then fell on his sword. The former Minister has an obligation to talk to the House and tell us everything that took place in relation to this. The Taoiseach is saying that the Department has corrected the record, but it was only late last night when the parliamentary questions came in that we learned Granahan McCourt Capital, GMC, and Tetrad are now the investors responsible for the project.

That was in parliamentary questions yesterday.

The Minister's Department told The Sunday Times two weeks ago in two series of articles that McCourt Global was the financial underpinner of this project, but McCourt Global has now disappeared. The Government is confusing the picture deliberately at this stage. What is the Taoiseach hiding in respect of the relationships between GMC, Tetrad, and McCourt Global? He said, and he may correct me on this, that Tetrad is putting up €175 million. Does that mean that GMC is putting no equity in, despite being the sole bidder? I may have picked the Taoiseach up wrong, but I thought he gave a figure of €175 million and said Tetrad was providing that. Does that mean GMC is only providing the working capital and is not putting any equity into the project? Can the Taoiseach confirm that?

What I said was that National Broadband Ireland will make €220 million in working capital available upfront. This will be legally required by the contract, which is being finalised. No upfront contributions will be made by the taxpayer, and the taxpayer will only pay as the fibre is deployed and homes, farms, and businesses are connected. That €220 million is made up of €175 million from Tetrad-----

There you go.

-----and the rest from Granahan McCourt Capital.

Tetrad.

GMC is putting in no money, so is Tetrad putting in the equity? This is a massive revelation.

The Deputy might not want the answer, but the Taoiseach is speaking.

To answer the rest of the Deputy's question, the fact that Deputy Naughten attended those dinners is old news. It has been in the public domain for many months and we knew it last year. The Deputy resigned from Government over six months ago and we used the interim period to make sure this bid was sound and that it was the right one to go forward with. An independent report was conducted by Mr. Peter Smyth, as the independent auditor dealing with all these matters.

Is Tetrad the new preferred bidder? We have been misled all along the way.

The Deputy needs to calm down.

The Taoiseach is not finished yet.

The Taoiseach is now saying for the first time since this was announced that Tetrad is putting in the equity, not GMC.

The Taoiseach is to speak without interruption. There is only one question and one supplementary question allowed, and I cannot be responsible for anything else.

The Deputy really needs to calm down. The Government has been very transparent on this matter.

Rubbish.

Deputy Martin is once again weaving one of his many conspiracy theories.

The Taoiseach called it a conspiracy theory when I spoke to him the night before Deputy Naughten resigned, but the Deputy resigned 24 hours later.