Tag Archives: Joint Oireachtas Committee

BROADFORD Post Office was just one of four nationwide that closed during the Covid-19 pandemic, it emerged this week. Deputy Cathal Crowe has called on An Post to review this branch closure after representatives from An Post appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications recently. Deputy Crowe disputed claims the post office was closed due to Covid-19 or contractual changes. “When I asked about the reasons behind the closure, a number of policies were laid out to me – distance between branches, size of communities and so on. This, however, is not the reasoning behind Broadford’s case,” said Deputy Crowe. “There had been a commitment to keep Broadford open and only for personal reasons necessitating the postmaster’s retirement, this branch would be open today. “So it is incorrect to say that Broadford’s closure has been a result of Covid-19 or contractual changes or so on. “I believe there is cherry picking going on here and I don’t …

Clare Fianna Fáil  Timmy Dooley has sharply criticised  mobile phone operators for “lacking any urgency” in repairing problems with poor coverage in East Clare. He commented, “Mobile phone operators in Ireland, including Vodafone, have been overseeing poor mobile phone coverage in many parts of East Clare. Areas like Mountshannon and Whitegate have extremely bad mobile phone coverage. It is part of a wider problem for mobile phone users in the county and it is not being tackled.” Deputy Dooley said it is not good enough to treat customers like this and it reflects extremely badly on these multi-national companies. “As a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications, I intend seeking to bring Vodafone and other mobile phone operators before the Committee to explain why they have virtually ignored this problem,” he said.

Shannonwatch has this Thursday called on the Government to explain why information received by the gardaí about rendition planes at Shannon Airport was not followed up on. In a submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions they said that over 100 complaints and requests to search suspect aircraft had been made between 2003 and 2013, none of which were properly addressed. They also reiterated their calls for an end to the US military use of Shannon, and for full disclosure of all agreements made with the US authorities in relation to this use. Shannonwatch made a number of recommendations to the parliamentary committee, including that the Government should establish an independent and impartial inquiry into the use of Shannon in the CIA’s illegal renditions programme. “This inquiry should examine the reasons for the failure to inspect suspect rendition aircraft. And the outcome of the inquiry should be made public” said John Lannon, who was part …