Taoiseach says Breen’s role in broadband saga ‘not a resigning matter’

It was "unwise"of Minister of State Pat Breen to pass on an invitation from a key bidder for the National Broadband Plan to his then senior colleague Denis Naughten but "it is not a resigning matter", the Taoiseach has said.

Leo Varadkar also told the Dáil that the terms of reference for the assessment of the broadband plan tender process will be ready within a couple of days and independent auditor Peter Smyth is expected to complete the report "within three to four weeks".

Mr Varadkar was responding to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin who had asked if the Taoiseach had spoken to Mr Breen in the wake of the controversy that led to Mr Naughten’s sudden resignation as minister for communications last Thursday.

Private dinners

He stood down after it emerged that he had a series of private dinners with David McCourt, a US businessman and leader of the last remaining bid to provide broadband to 540,000 homes and businesses which cannot currently access it.

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The Taoiseach told Mr Martin that he had spoken to Mr Breen, who said Mr McCourt had asked that he pass on an invitation to Mr Naughten to have dinner with the businessman.

Mr Naughten accepted and Mr Breen, who lives near Mr McCourt’s home in Co Clare, also attended. The Taoiseach said Mr Breen assured him that “the national broadband plan was not discussed”.

He added that the dinner took place last year when there were other bidders in the tendering process for the contract.

Mr Varadkar said the invitation was passed on verbally and that while they might all agree that doing so was “unwise”, it was “not a resigning matter”.