Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No.9:

In page 16, to delete lines 42 to 45 and in page 17, to delete lines 1 to 7.

The Minister keeps telling us he is taking a minimalist approach to complying with European law. Why is the provision that the universal service obligation can be reduced from 20 kg to 10 kg? I just do not get it. Perhaps the Minister can explain why he is not willing to delete this and insist on the 20 kg figure. It is a black and white issue. I have no good explanation for this other than to assume that this is unnecessary creeping liberalisation. The Minister said he is all for keeping An Post as a universal service operator, but I do not think this Bill will do that.

I am interested in hearing that An Post would like to get out of this area, because it shows us that even within the citadel, there are people who think it is too onerous to go to every house every day. That will become much more vociferous as the good parts of the market are taken away. An Post management will keep coming back and say that mail is declining and it is not profitable any more, and that the good parts of the market in Dublin 2 and Dublin 4 are gone. The Government will try to levy the private sector but it will not be paid, as we saw with the VHI. The pressure will come on ComReg and it will be said that it is ridiculous to go to a house every day if there is no piece of mail every day. Then the service will begin to diminish step by step. That is the scenario and the Minister is adding to this by reducing the service obligation from 20 kg to 10 kg. It is very simple; he just needs to remove those parts from the Bill.

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