Results 4,481-4,500 of 5,173 for speaker:Joe O'Reilly

Seanad: Water Services: Motion (12 Jan 2011)

Joe O'Reilly: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. During the freeze, two problems or difficulties arose. First, pipes were generally not deep enough in the ground to withstand the unprecedented drop in temperatures. That should not be the case as we should be ready for eventuality. The fact that pipes are close to the ground surface was a difficulty in many new housing estates. That was the first...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Jan 2011)

Joe O'Reilly: Will the Leader invite the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, to the House for a special debate on the grave fears regarding 497 jobs in Quinn Direct in Cavan and a further range of jobs that depend on them? As we speak, the administrators of Direct are in the process of-----

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Jan 2011)

Joe O'Reilly: Yes. As I speak, the administrators of Direct are in the process of selling it. What has happened to the deal proposed by the board of the company? That deal would have saved the taxpayers money and saved the jobs. It is crucial to maintaining the business in that area. Why is the deal no longer on the table? Will the Minister explain that? I want the Leader to give us assurances that...

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: At a time when job creation is a mantra, I want to speak about job retention.

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: I wish to ask about job retention on a grand scale. Quinn Group provides 6,000 jobs in Ireland and internationally, including 1,400 jobs in the area of County Cavan that Senator Wilson and I represent. Quinn Insurance, which has been in administration for more than six months, has drawn up an independently verified plan with its banker, Anglo Irish Bank, to keep the business in local...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Dec 2010)

Joe O'Reilly: Last night's " Prime Time Investigates" programme was hugely disturbing because the victims are people who are not in a position to fight back and many of them will not live to tell the tale. What is really disturbing is that it involves a systems breakdown in the HSE. The problem - I want to Leader to respond and to bring this point to the attention of the Minister and possibly have it...

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

Joe O'Reilly: I join in the welcome for this Government amendment as a co-sponsor of the initial amendment alongside Senator O'Toole and having spoken on the issue on Second and Committee Stages in the belief that the unions should be part of any consultative process, public or otherwise, as important stakeholders. I would have preferred the explicit use of the word "union" and I see no reason it should...

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

Joe O'Reilly: I move amendment No. 3: In page 29, to delete lines 24 to 28 and substitute the following: "28.---(1) A postal service provider has the right to enter into negotiations with a universal service provider with a view to concluding an agreement with that provider to access the postal network of the universal service provider up to the inward mail centre and may serve notice.". The legislation...

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

Joe O'Reilly: I am disappointed with the Minister of State's response. We do not believe there is sufficient protection in the legislation to provide for a level playing pitch. The legislation is too ambiguous and open to different interpretations. There is also too much of an assumption underlying this legislation that An Post, while it will expand and take on new roles and services and so on, will...

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...