Angry exchanges between chairman of the Oireachtas rail signalling inquiry Mr Sean Doherty and former chairman of Esat Mr Denis O’Brien continued today, with Mr O’Brien claiming the Fianna Fáil TD is incompetent to chair the investigation.
Mr O’Brien said Mr Doherty’s involvement in a phone-tapping scandal while Minister for Justice in the 1980s called the "credibility" of his position as inquiry chairman into question.
Shortly after the resumption of the inquiry this morning Mr O’Brien and Mr Leslie Buckley, the former chief executive of Esat, were interrupted by the chairman who said Mr Buckley should not be advising Mr O’Brien on his answers.
"I am asking you to desist, you are being obstructive . . . and it is not in accordance with what’s required in here," Mr Doherty said amid claims by Mr Buckley that he was trying to ensure the inquiry received a clear answer to the question.
Later, after a short recess, the chairman offered Mr O’Brien the opportunity to apologise for his remarks about the inquiry. But Mr O’Brien re-iterated his comments, saying they were not in reference to the other members of the committee and were directed only at Mr Doherty.
"What I did say was that I didn’t think you were fit to be chairman of the committee . . . given your past involvement in phone tapping and other matters," Mr O’Brien said.
Mr O’Brien and Mr Doherty clashed yesterday when the committe chairman asked if the Esat-CIÉ agreement was a "sweetheart deal".
"If you have any notion that this was a sweetheart deal, I think it calls into question your ability to make any assessment," Mr O'Brien angrily responded.
The Oireachtas committee is inquiring into why the installation of a mini-CTC rail-signalling system costed at £14 million is still unfinished and is likely to cost at least £50 million.