On Esat bid

‘I DON’T have any regrets, I can’t rewrite it, the decision (awarding of the phone licence) wasn’t made by me, it was made by the internal inter-party group, not once did any of the civil servants give evidence, there wasn’t a shred of evidence that I had interfered in any way with it. And there were 18 civil servants that gave evidence. That was a turning point in my life. And, you know, it was a road block, just brought an end, effectively, to my ministerial career and my future involvement as a minister.’