John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

Again I support Senator O'Toole. While we were speaking in the House, at all times we accepted there would be access. We are really worried about section 29(2), which states that "the Commission may give a direction to a universal postal service provider requiring it to permit access to other postal service providers to its postal infrastructure on such conditions as the Commission may direct for that purpose". That is carte blanche and it could not be contemplated. It certainly would not reflect what happened during the previous deregulation, allowing competition into the electricity and telecoms market.

The question about the database has not been answered. Giving competitors access to databases on the basis of who An Post is doing business with would be unacceptable in any market and I do not think it should be allowed in this market either.