So Cullen is setting up the Dublin Transportation Authority about 20 years too late. One quote annoyed me:
It’s also going to be in charge of traffic management, bus and rail fares and overall integration of the transport in the capital.
Going by the way the telecoms poodle looks after pricing and the way the energy regulator allows energy companies to do what they want, I wonder how long before fares become some of the highest in Europe?
We have the highest telecom prices and some of the worst service in Europe. (Despite the monopoly winning world awards) Our energy prices are about to follow suit and instead of following the advice of consultants about how to make the energy market more competitive Noel “Dialup” Dempsey instead is just going to maintain the status quo. He says in hindsight they should have split eircom into a wholesale and retail division and sold off the retail yet he won’t do this with the E.S.B.?
The energy regulator like the poodle, allows the likes of Bord Gaid and E.S.B. to price their services based on cost of the network. So with all increases in oil and gas, the E.S.B. and Bord Gais are allowed to massively increase what they charge the consumer. How about telling them to make their networks more efficient and cutting back on the massive fat in their organisations? Why not just deny the price increase? I heard the energy regulator on TodayFM a while back and he was nothing more than an apologist for Bord Gais and the E.S.B. Independent my arse.
Any time someone complains about a telecoms issue Dempsey says “Not me boyo, that’s ComReg, they’re an independent group and I cannot interfere in what they do.” When someone complains about energy he does the same thing. He has a boilerplate reply to any issue in regards to telecom. In fact Dermot Ahern used the exact same boilerplate when he has the CMNR gig:
The provision of telecommunications services, including broadband, is a matter in the first instance for the private sector companies operating in a fully liberalised market, regulated by the Commission for Communications Regulation.
Why are we letting the Government wash their hands of these issues? Why are we accepting the lies that the Government has no control of these markets when they are the ones legislating for them? It’s been often discussed that IrelandOffline should expand their remit to cover more areas like energy which seems to have been completely forgotten by everyone but we have enough on our plate with a regulator that has gotten so bogged down in their own lies that they release counter-releases to our counter-releases and try and stop articles being published with data we have supplied.
Regulation should be a good thing in the short-term but instead the words regulation and regulator are dirty words in Ireland and convenient excuses for bumbling ministers.
Enjoy this site about regulation.
It is funny you should mention that the Dublin Transport Authority is being established ’20 years too late’. In fact, a Dublin Transport Authority was established in 1986. However, it was dissolved again in 1987 (see http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA34Y1987.html ) after the election.