Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

During the debate on the establishment of Irish Water I questioned the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, on the use of PPI numbers, as provided for in the legislation.

I questioned her closely as to how this process would work. The Minister assured me and the House that the PPS numbers requested by Irish Water from its customers would be used exclusively within Irish Water. Since then, it has become a major issue with householders across the country. Members of the other House have raised questions about it and the Data Protection Commissioner has become involved. Despite the fact that the Minister assured me at that time that the PPS numbers would be used exclusively by Irish Water, a suspicion has now emerged that Irish Water might be privatised eventually, which has resulted in concern about what would happen to the personal details held on its database. I ask the Leader to ask the Minister to come to the House or, at the very least, to issue a statement reiterating what she put on the record of the House in order to allay the fears of those who are concerned about providing their PPS numbers.

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is responsible for An Post. I ask that he come to the House or make a statement about the ongoing expansion of postal services by An Post into non-post-office areas. Media reports state that An Post plans to provide stamps and parcel facilities at depots located in business parks around the country. This will take away business from the post office network. I refer to recent news that the credit unions and the post office network are thinking of linking up to provide what might ultimately become a third banking service in this country. This initiative should be actively encouraged. It would reflect the sentiment on all sides of this House which supports the post office network because of its importance to rural Ireland. I ask the Minister to issue a statement or come to the House to clarify the position.

I refer to the furore surrounding the Seanad by-election. Remarks have been attributed to Members on the Government side - from both Fine Gael and the Labour Party - that this is a reflection of how Fianna Fáil did business. Fianna Fáil never did anything like this. I will not get any satisfaction from the other side because they will always throw out this old turnip. Therefore, I ask those in the media to do a little bit of research and they will discover that Fine Gael-Labour Party coalitions, whenever they have been in power, have stuffed State boards with their own people.