Results 4,501-4,520 of 5,184 for speaker:Joe O'Reilly

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Report and Final Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: I co-sponsored the amendment with Senator O'Toole who asked me before he left the House to express his appreciation to the Minister for accepting the amendment. The objective is to prevent a private service provider coming in to cherry-pick areas, enter the market at an unreasonable cost level and prejudice An Post and its operation. While I wish the previous amendment had also been...

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Report and Final Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: I formally second the amendment which I strongly support. If we were to apply solely commercial criteria to the maintenance or otherwise of rural post offices, we would have two to three post offices in an average county. This cannot be the case. I support the effort to put a legislative imperative into the Bill to prevent this being the case in the future. We have all attended the public...

Seanad: Order of Business (9 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: This year's budget in many ways hits the poor and ordinary people who did not create our troubles. One measure which stands out and that should be reconsidered and discussed in this House is the reduction in the carer's allowance. People who are carers make an input into the economy. They create wealth in the sense of reducing the need for institutional care.

Seanad: Order of Business (9 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: They create wealth in the sense of providing a service at home. They are cost neutral. There have been many consultative studies and so on in this country and a great deal of money has been spent on experts to advise experts, many from outside the Civil Service, but a proper study has never been undertaken of the import and potential of carers to keep more people at home and out of...

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: I wish to make a brief observation on the latter point. Postal scams which fool people into believing they have won money or are the beneficiaries of trusts or wills, have caused immense trauma and difficulties for vulnerable people. There are some glaring examples that we have all come across. I came across one case of a person who was very street-wise in every other respect, but they got...

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: I subscribe to the latter point made by Senator O'Toole which I commend to the Minister for his consideration. I also concur with the Senator's remarks about the integrity and quality of personnel in the regulator's office having regard to the committee's positive meetings with them. On amendment No. 31, can the Minister say, based on the advice he is receiving and on his own assessment,...

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: I support the deletion of the section. A reasonable criticism the public often makes is that Ireland is overly diligent, overly scrupulous and overly law-abiding in its adoption of every little piece of a directive from Europe. In other words, it is enough to take on the spirit of a directive and its broad objectives. It is sufficient to take on the concept of competition without in the...

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: I also support Senator Ryan's amendment. As a general principle I would be against such closures and such a diminution of services. It goes against the arguments that we had been making on Second Stage and in earlier amendments on Committee Stage, when we were saying the big objective was to get to everybody in this country on an equal basis, as quickly and as competitively as others, so...

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: I am fine for the moment.

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: I share Senator O'Toole's concern and regret the Minister is not automatically accepting these amendments or at least their spirit, while proposing to come back on Report Stage with similar amendments. The object of the mediation proposal is that when there are two diametrically opposed positions, as an exercise of last resort, there should be an independent mediation service. We believe...

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: Very well. Again, this point is expressed in my amendment No. 16, which includes the phrase, "and having regard to the cost to the consumer and to the quality of service". One does not want a situation to arise in which, between information technology on one side and private operators on the other, there is no provision for State support for An Post in a doomsday scenario. I acknowledge...

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: The Royal Mail is having problems in England.

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: It is not in conflict with the Minister of State's ambition to see An Post compete and adapt to the market place; there is no incompatibility here. The amendments enshrine in this legislation that whoever delivers the service, private or public, there is a legislative imperative to do so with regard to cost, efficiency, universal delivery and low pricing. I do not see the difficulty; surely...

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: If I understood the Minister of State correctly, it is being accepted. On that basis it is not being pressed.

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: The Minister is accepting it.

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: All right.

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: I move amendment No. 16: In page 19, subsection (5), line 26, after "designated" to insert the following: "and having regard to the cost to the consumer and to the quality of service".

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: To ensure the efficient running of the House, I will not reopen the debate, but I advise the Minister to read the transcript to see the arguments we made. I appeal to him to either accept our amendments or tell us that he will come back with proposals to achieve the same objectives which should not be disputed.

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: I strongly support Senator O'Toole's amendment to delete "five years" and substitute "three" because three years is a reasonable period. Five years would put An Post into a straitjacket. As I said on Second Stage, I am concerned that we should preserve the universal service obligation and the excellent next-day delivery levels to every part of Ireland that An Post has achieved. That is the...

Seanad: Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State's acceptance of the spirit of amendment No. 14. I am happy that is the case because we should maintain a democratic basis for what we are doing. The ultimate authority in the State should be the Oireachtas which should have the power to review and make decisions. I strongly support amendment No. 11 to which my name is also appended following discussions with...