Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

We must come back to the issue of designation; it is not a monopoly and does not preclude market entry. What it does, in effect, is place an obligation on An Post. There is an issue with the protection of consumer interests which must be addressed and we must be careful not to err on one side or another. I also reiterate the point that this proposal has not come out of the blue. We have been aware of the EU directive for some time; it is not as if it suddenly dropped out of the sky after seven years.