Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Those opposite are six years in Government and the reality is nothing has happened in those six years. We have plenty of reports and working groups that encourage this, that and the other, but nothing is happening. We are going to get the argument that An Post is a commercial company and if we cannot get it to do this work, why not contract services directly from the State to the post office? I was fascinated to hear Deputy Deering speaking about encouraging agencies to work on this. Sometimes I wonder why we get elected if we hand all the power to other people to decide things, with nobody answering to those of us elected by the people. Deputies know that if they return to their constituencies saying they cannot do this or that because of independent bodies, the quick answer is that the people elected us to do things.

I always understood the theory of semi-State bodies was that they were agents of Government policy and they are not independent in the way some people in The Irish Timeswould like them to be independent. Their job is to implement Government policy and they do not have a choice in the matter. They have a choice in day-to-day matters but not in policy. Listening to the Minister of State's speech, that message does not seem to be getting across to these agencies; they do not realise that the Minister of State needs to get a resolution to the issue.

I read the speech very carefully and the Minister of State must be investigating so many issues because there are so many groups.

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