Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Bill requires that access to a universal service provider network should be agreed in the first instance on a commercial basis. I stated on Committee Stage that I did not believe legislation which restricted legitimate commercial activity would best serve the needs of postal users, the economy or An Post. Especially in the context of a contracting market and the need for flexibility in meeting challenges, I do not propose to accept the Opposition amendments. However, I did accept that Deputy Ferris had raised legitimate concerns on Committee Stage regarding access and undertook to explore with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel the possibility of drafting an amendment that would add to the list of issues mentioned in section 33(8) that ComReg had to consider in settling disputes around access. I now propose an amendment to section 33(8) to the effect that it must also consider the capital investment made by a universal service provider in arriving at any decision in resolving disputes around access.

The effect of this provision is that it will be an explicit requirement that the capital investment made by a universal service provider must be factored into ComReg's considerations when resolving a dispute relating to downstream access. A number of Deputies have raised that with me across all sides of the House and as Deputy Ó Cuív admitted earlier, this goes some way to addressing the concerns of colleagues.

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