Results 6,781-6,800 of 31,374 for speaker:Eamon Ryan

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

Eamon Ryan: This section provides for agreement to be reached between the postal service provider and a universal service provider on access to the latter's network. The intention behind the drafting amendments is to ensure decisions made by ComReg on access will be subject to the appeals provisions provided for. Amendment No. 45 to section 47 inserts a new appeals section. The amendment to section...

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

Eamon Ryan: This country is the sixth cheapest for large energy users.

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

Eamon Ryan: It is not proposed to accept these amendments. Regarding the first part of amendment No. 30, section 14 designates the Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg, as the independent national regulatory authority for the purposes of the directive. Article 22 of the directive requires the designation of a regulatory authority that is independent of postal service providers. Therefore,...

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

Eamon Ryan: I argue that the provisions contained in section 28 mean in a sense that ComReg is acting in that mediating role. If the Senator reads the section, it says in effect that two parties may enter into negotiation, the service provider and the universal service provider. If they wish they may let ComReg know that negotiations are starting. If either party requests it, then ComReg could specify...

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

Eamon Ryan: In a previous amendment to section 47 we were seeking to implement a new provision which would allow for such an appeal across any of the decisions that ComReg makes. It is an amendment I shall be tabling on Report Stage, although we have been discussing it on Committee Stage. The point is that there is an appeal mechanism in place at any part of the decision making by ComReg, in a...

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

Eamon Ryan: With regard to Senator O'Toole's contribution, there will always be recourse to mediation. I always recommend mediation to avoid an expensive court case. This would provide for mediation following mediation but I would always keep it open as a possibility while making legislative provisions and allowing people who wish to seek legal recourse in the courts to do so. The wording in section 28...

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

Eamon Ryan: In response to Senators Ryan and Hanafin, the analogy they used is very good, in that Airtricity has access to the ESB distribution grid wires. In the space of a 30-second telephone call, one can change one's customer relation while retaining all the same systems, including metering, local wires and everything else, which are given as access to a competitor. This works well in the public...

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

Eamon Ryan: ------through a variety of different means. They can come through An Post directly, through new retail opportunities and through other people seeking to use that network for retail and wholesale opportunities. My instinct is that this enterprise opportunity will be better under this provision than were we simply to leave it be. Were the reserved area to go without a legislative protection,...

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

Eamon Ryan: I might come back to the section to provide absolute certainty on that point, so the wording "and network costs" of section 28(9) could be changed to "and postal network costs". This would reflect the broader cost base that is contained in the original definition. That might reflect the Senator's concerns.

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

Eamon Ryan: I will seek advice on that from the parliamentary counsel and try to come back on Report Stage with an amendment on it.

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

Eamon Ryan: I know well the area Senator Brendan Ryan referred to and I understand his concern as a local representative about any diminution in service. That is a matter that can be brought up by representatives with An Post directly but it is a commercial matter for the company and as Minister I cannot get down to directing or managing on a local area basis. That would be an impossible situation. We...

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

Eamon Ryan: This is a drafting amendment which replaces "among postal service providers", which is qualified by "of postal services", with "among providers" to remove repetition of the term "postal services". Amendment agreed to.

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

Eamon Ryan: This amendment deletes the requirement for ComReg to publish the financial contributions an individual postal service provider makes to a sharing mechanism established to share any unfair and financial burden from meeting the universal service public obligation. The reason for the amendment is the publication of information at the level of the individual provider could result in the release...

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

Eamon Ryan: The vision I have is of a new, renovated postal service that addresses in particular the needs of rural Ireland, including the 40% of houses which are one-off houses. A whole range of new services can open up, if we have the right system, to get products to those houses in a cost-effective, customer-friendly way. The development of Internet technologies is particularly relevant to this. A...

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

Eamon Ryan: I do not think anyone has cracked this yet. We will have to suit the system to our needs, particularly those of the rural population. There is probably no model comparable to Ireland because few countries have such a widely distributed population with many one-off houses. Anyone I have spoken to in the past three or four years recognises that change is coming and that it is likely to be...

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

Eamon Ryan: I accept the principle underpinning amendment No. 41, that is, the introduction of a new section providing for appeals to ComReg decisions. I have also tabled amendments to section 36 to ensure greater consistency with the directive. Section 36 provides that ComReg may suspend or withdraw an authorisation to provide postal services where there is serious or repeated non-compliance with...

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

Eamon Ryan: The Senator is correct that the main intent of the amendment is to do the same as he has proposed in amendment No. 41. The Senator's logic is correct in respect of the need to avoid vexatious claims which would merely lead to a delay in a decision or where it would be suspended that the decision stands. Our amendments are similar in that respect. I will have to refer this matter to the...

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

Eamon Ryan: I will pass on the Senator's views on attorneys to the Attorney General.

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

Eamon Ryan: Section 37 provides that the postal service provider should give three months notice of its intention to withdraw a service. This applies to postal service providers providing services within the scope of the universal service only and not to the universal service provider itself. A designated universal postal service provider may not withdraw postal services within the universal service....

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

Eamon Ryan: Further to the discussions we had earlier, I do not propose to accept the amendment. Levies on postal service providers and communications providers are imposed pursuant to section 30 of the Communications Regulation Act 2002. There is no appeals mechanism in place for either of these sectors. The Bill does require, however, that ComReg in imposing a levy under section 30, ensures that it...