Carroll calls on Vodafone to give unused credit to local charities and community groups
Louth Senator James Carroll has called today in Seanad Éireann on Vodafone to do the right thing and not hold on to unused credit from dormant phone accounts which they said that they would be doing this week.
“Vodafone wants to recycle numbers and will therefore cut off mobile accounts that have remained dormant for more than eight months.
“Vodafone is proposing to deactivate dormant mobile telephone accounts and take back the unused credit.”
“It is unclear how much money this would be worth to Vodafone, but it presents a real opportunity for them to do the right thing and give back those funds to local charities or community projects that could really benefit from a cash injection.”
“Vodafone is a very successful company that has made significant profits from Irish users. A unique opportunity exists here to do the right thing and put that unused phone credit, which is real cash, to good use,” concluded Senator Carroll.
ENDS
You are supposed to be a politician for Drogheda and South Louth, you are not generating any jobs for the Drogheda area, there is no point highlighting 280 jobs in Dundalk.
Also on the issue of headshops, other elected representatives worked hard to close shops in the town, you as far as I am aware did not take part in this process, could you please clarify exactly what you did to assist close headhssops in Drogheda. I heard you on LMFM the other day and would just like to know how you helped in these efforts.
Eimear
Hi Eimear,
Thank you for your post. I spoke in the Seanad on the headshop issue a number of times over the 5 months that I have been a member of the Seanad. A number of months ago, I was in contact with the then Minister for Drugs John Curran on how to tackle this problem. I have been in regular contact with the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern on how to tackle the scourge of these headshops in the legal and criminal sphere rather than within the medical sphere which heretofore is where the focus has been. I have been liasing with a number of gardaí, social workers, parents, teachers and school principals on seeking their advice and experience of how best to address this issue. I believe that all public representatives have a role and a duty to work together for the common good and just because I don’t broadcast every word I say or phonecall I make does not mean I am not working very hard on this issue.
In relation to the jobs front, I am hopeful of a major jobs announcement in the near future. As the new government representative for Drogheda, we have to make Drogheda as attractive an environment as we can and project as positive an image as we can possibly. I highlighted the jobs in Dundalk because it is a good news story and the media is obsessed with negativity so I wanted to bring some balance and indeed, some hope to people. I am sure you would do the same. Furthermore, good news for Dundalk does not necessarily mean bad for Drogheda; what benefits Dundalk could be a location for Drogheda people to work in so let’s focus on the positives.
If you would like to call into my office at 1 Dyer Street and I could use your advice and experience on job creation and closing headshops on how collectively we can progress these issues.