Thread by @gavinsblog

*Mulls yet another eNet thread*

*sigh*. Ok a short one. And then a longer one.

There's so many moving parts to the eNet/MAN/NBP/Granahan McCourt saga it can be difficult to keep up

So let's do a simple one.

This is an entry for Sep 7, 2017, from Minister for Communications Denis Naughten's diary (obtained by @RightToKnowIE).

Enet/SSE were announcing an ambitious plan to bring fibre to certain towns. The launch was held in the Minister's constituency of Roscommon.

The Department trumpeted the announcement. 115,000 homes! €100m investment! Note the URL at the bottom: enetsse dot ie.

The domain was registered 6 days before the announcement.

Here's how it looks now. It did redirect to a page on enet's website. But that page has been deleted.

Note that this announcement is seemingly unrelated to the National Broadband Plan. It is a JV between Enet and SSE, targeting certain towns.

Thanks to the Internet Archive we can see the page that was deleted. Here it is. Interesting. Why Roscommon and Donegal I wonder? Curiously, the towns targeted are a) in the constituency of the Minister and b) in the constituency of the FG Chief Whip.

There was also a fancy video made for the announcement:

Here's a photo from the launch.

Can we assume from the deletion of the page that the Joint Venture never in fact happened, and the promised investment has not come to fruition? I checked the CRO and can't find any company showing a joint venture. Maybe I missed it.

If so, what was the point of the whole thing? Your guess is as good as mine.

But at the same time as this, Enet/SSE were joint bidders for the NBP contract. SSE would exit that consortium in July 2018. We don't really know why.

The shoes in the consortium have been partly filled by Siteserve/Actavo and KN Group.

Given the details in the press release, the first homes in Roscommon should be already being connected by the joint venture. Again though, why Roscommon and Donegal? It's very specific. #justasking

Anyways. There were other meetings involving the Minister and Mr McCourt. We're curious about those, and others. First, the CEO of Huawei *might* be interesting, but likely courtesy (they do sell infra equipment though)

There was also this lunch on April 18 in the Members Restaurant in Leinster House.

This one also, with Varadkar and Donohue. May 2.

Then there was Mr McCourt's book launch on May 14

And a couple of others. Anyways @RightToKnowIE has filed an FOI seeking more records. We look forward to learning more.

End thread! (Another one may follow lol)

(Of course other questions:

Where was the €100m funding coming from? Debt?
How were the homes being connected exactly, using what mechanism?
Why would you duplicate effort - while also bidding on the NBP?)

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Just a quick followup. According to the lobbying register, SSE actively lobbied on this issue.. the first return relates to the launch itself.

There was a followup with three TDs. 2x FF and 1x Sinn Fein. This is not related to the NBP, or to Donegal/Roscommon.

Then Minister of State John Halligan.

Addendum and maybe unrelated to the Enet/SSE JV: Eoghan Ó Neachtain met 4 TDs representing Enet in Q1 this year (Enet is a client of Heneghan PR). I can't find reference to a meeting between Mr Ó Neachtain and the Minister in the diary (not everything is recorded though)

There's no more meetings declared (yet?) re the Enet/SSE joint venture. Will await with interest.

The issue of the April meeting in this thread was raised in the Dail this morning by several TDs. The minister said the April meeting was one he didn't attend (but it's in the ministerial diary). It was actually for Mr McCourt's daughter/family.

How did it come about? If it was for McCourt's daughter why is it in the Minister's diary? @RightToKnowIE has filed an FOI to find out.

If the minister or his Department arranged it, why do it in the middle of the awarding of the biggest contract in the history of the State? Is it a good look?

via @broadsheet_ie here's what the Minister said.

Here's the clip. The failure to answer two earlier questions, and then the way it was answered, raises more questions than it answers IMO. Did the Minister sign Mr McCourt into Leinster House? Who suggested it? Why did it go in his diary? Is it a good look for the Minister?

In a followup q: he facilitated the family but didn't meet Mr McCourt that day.

The @RTENewsAtOne have done a package on the April meeting posted in this thread. rte.ie/radio/utils/ra…

I'm sort of laughing at a Twitter thread leading to a) questions in parliament and then a news package on the radio. Support @RightToKnowIE to keep filing FOIs. @kenfoxe does amazing work too!

I think I can end this thread now. Tweet number 19 in the thread helped bring down the Minister. However the procurement process should still be halted. Will be keeping a close eye.