Varadkar left red-faced by resignation of minister
PSNI Chief Constable
George Hamilton THE Irish government has been thrown into chaos following the unexpected resignation of one of its ministers amid controversy over the State’s national broadband plan.
Leo Varadkar revealed details last night of previously undisclosed meetings between the former communications minister and the head of a consortium bidding for the multi-million euro contract to provide rural broadband.
Denis Naughten resigned his Cabinet seat yesterday over a series of meetings with US businessman David McCourt, who is leading the sole remaining bid for a contract to roll-out high-speed broadband to more than 500,000 homes across the country.
Mr Naughten told the Dail it was clear Mr Varadkar did not have confidence in him and he had been left in an “impossible stark position” that a politician never wanted to find themselves in.
“If I was a cynic, which I’m not, the outcome is about polls rather than telecoms poles, it’s more about optics than fibre opticism,” he said.
Speaking in the Dail yesterday evening, Mr Varadkar said that he had received a phone call from Mr Naughten late on Wednesday night informing him that “he had just remembered” that he had another meeting with Mr McCourt, a private meeting in the businessman’s home in 2017, which had been organised by junior minister Pat Breen.
Mr Varadkar said: “Deputy Naughten suggested that in order to protect the national broadband project he be reshuffled to another ministry or the responsibility of broadband be assigned to another minister.
“I said I’d reflect on that overnight and meet him in the morning.”