Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

The Minister only touched on postcodes but the Bill is an enabling provision, allowing the Minister to establish and operate post codes. I am still very confused about post codes. There is a tender process ongoing at the moment but it is not clear to me how open it is and whether the process is free to consider a fully numeric system. Perhaps it must choose an alphanumeric system and the Minister might refer to this in his response. Perhaps he can assure us that the tender can consider all forms of post codes and not just the Minister's favourite model, the alphanumeric system, which he believes will help people to remember post codes. I do not know how people remember post codes. The only one I can remember is my sister's post code. I must look up everyone else's post code in the UK. I hope we will see post codes this year and there will not be too much of a delay.

In the Minister's response, I ask him to explain why this Bill was not brought forward last year. European legislation was passed in 2008 and almost every other country has enacted it in domestic law. When we discussed this issue during Question Time in early December, the Minister promised to introduce the Bill before the Christmas recess. It is only being brought in now even though the directive is already in force. Perhaps the Minister can explain why this was not done. Fine Gael broadly welcomes this Bill, which derives from European legislation that is already in force. Competition will provide low prices or keep prices low for consumers. It will provide new services for consumers, particularly business consumers. It will also encourage An Post to continue to innovate and become more efficient.

However, the protections in the Bill are not strong enough. We need stronger provisions to ensure that An Post remains a strong company and that the universal service obligation is not undermined. If the universal service obligation is changed, it should be done by ministerial decision and not by ComReg. We also need to ensure there is provision for State aid in the unlikely event that it is necessary to compensate An Post for providing postal services to rural areas on an equal basis.

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