Results 8,021-8,040 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 (Seanad): Motion to Instruct the Committee (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: As it is outside the remit of Standing Orders, the purpose of the motion is to recommit on Report Stage a specific matter relating to the funding of TG4. The comments of spokespersons, with the exception of Deputy Ferris, have ranged far and wide. Members are perfectly entitled to do this. The net issue is that this Bill was considered an appropriate vehicle to facilitate the TG4 issue. As...

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 (Seanad): Motion to Instruct the Committee (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: -----and did not manage to implement his vision during that time. He raised a number of interesting issues. There were wide-ranging comments from the other contributors, with the exception of Deputy Ferris. Like St. Augustine, it seems we are all in favour of TG4 but we have serious problems with RTE. I will examine the broadcasting scene and I have listened to Deputy Ó Cuív's submission...

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 (Seanad): Motion to Instruct the Committee (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: He takes some beating. He is all in favour of TG4 and giving more money to the station but he is opposed to the Bill and RTE. Deputy 'Ming' Flanagan will have a very uncomfortable time in the serious matter of heavy lifting in this House and dealing with legislation rather than pontificating outside the House. If he is going to suffer this kind of pain and anguish over every measure coming...

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 (Seanad): Motion to Instruct the Committee (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: It is delivered five days a week in his part of the country and it will continue to be delivered five days a week under the designation of An Post as the universal service operator. There will be no change in that and it does not have anything to do with TG4, the matter under debate here. Deputies 'Ming' Flanagan and Mattie McGrath-----

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 (Seanad): Motion to Instruct the Committee (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: I beg Deputy Luke Flanagan's pardon.

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 (Seanad): Motion to Instruct the Committee (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: The Deputy is the one who gave himself the middle name, not me.

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 (Seanad): Motion to Instruct the Committee (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: Deputies Flanagan and McGrath took the opportunity to make a populist attack on lead personalities in RTE. The fact of the matter is that RTE is facing a significant deficit. I had a further meeting with the director general of RTE this week. The focus of the meeting was his plans to try to get the deficit under control. It is fair to point out that RTE was the first of the State...

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: I move amendment No. 1: In page 7, lines 27 and 28, to delete all words from and including "TO" in line 27 where it firstly occurs down to and including "ELECTION," in line 28 and substitute the following: "TO REGULATE THE PROVISION OF FREE POSTAGE FOR CERTAIN CANDIDATES FOR ELECTION,". This is a drafting amendment to the Long Title of the Bill. It has been recommended by the Parliamentary...

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: I move amendment No. 2: In page 7, line 40, after "INSTRUMENTS," to insert "TO AMEND THE BROADCASTING ACT 2009". Amendments Nos. 2 and 3 are consequential amendments to the Long Title and to section 1 of the Bill. They arise from the inclusion in the Bill of a number of amendments to the Broadcasting Act 2009. Amendment No. 35 is of a technical nature. Its purpose is to define the term...

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: I thank the Deputies for their support for these amendments. There is no other purpose in terms of the explanation Deputy Ó Cuív seeks about why this provision is included in a communications Bill. It is a communications Bill-----

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: -----and the only reason for adding this amendment is to ensure that TG4 does not run out of money. If, once the committees had been set up, I had had to introduce stand-alone primary legislation and compete with my colleagues for time on the floor of the House, I would not have been able to enact this in time for the July deadline. At the end of July, TG4 will run out of money. We are now...

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: -----would have run out of funding, which it would have if we had not dealt with this in the manner we have. I do not disagree with Deputy Ó Cuív. I am not claiming that this is anything, as he put it, but a céim bheag i dtreo ceart. I am not disputing that this is but a small step but it is an important one. On the question raised by the Deputy about the comparison between what it...

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: -----I do not know the answer to that but now that the Deputy has raised it, I will examine it. I imagine that it comprises many factors. TG4 has its own culture, its own way of doing things and its own way of managing and staying within its budget. As the Deputy will know from what I have said, I do not believe its work is in any way inferior. On the contrary, I believe there is some...

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: I move amendment No. 3: In page 8, line 6, to delete "(other than sections 62 to 65)" and substitute "(other than sections 62 to 65 and Part 4)".

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: 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...

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: There was quite a substantial debate on this at Committee Stage. As we discussed then, I moved an amendment to extend the designation period for An Post from seven years to 12 years with the Minister now having a consenting role in a decision made by ComReg in the designation process. I cannot accept Deputy Ó Cuív's proposal to extend further the 12 year period to 20 years and Deputy...

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: He either accepts that the directive requires me to do that on behalf of the Government of this member state or he does not. If he accepts that I am required to do it, then I have done it in the most considered way feasible. I must oppose the amendments.

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: Mr. Mark Killilea used to deliver them out of the boot of the car at that time.

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: It would appear, listening to Deputies Fleming and Ó Cuív, that Fianna Fáil has now come out against privatisation. That may be a very good thing but the Deputies are entirely wrong when they ask me to look at the Telecom Éireann experience as being evidence of where competition does not work. It is not competition that has led to the situation we have in telecoms, it is the asset...

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (19 Jul 2011)

Pat Rabbitte: The Government has done about the best job one can do in this regard. As Deputy O'Reilly noted, I have taken a Bill with which Fianna Fáil was satisfied that included a seven-year derogation. There was not a peep out of Deputy Ó Cuív then. I checked because I thought he might have made observations on the memorandum.