Comms Bill may be passed before election

Nuno

An article by Karlin Lillington in the Irish Times.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2002/0306/2232411462BZCOMMBILL.html

The Government's delayed Communications Bill may yet make it through the Dáil before an election is called, after Opposition parties signalled they would agree to prioritise its passage.

The Bill, published last week, is considered crucial to accelerating the development of the State's high-speed internet infrastructure and to enabling the full liberalisation of the telecommunications sector.

The information and communications technology (ICT) sector has argued strongly for its immediate adoption.

"That Bill is printed and out. I have received an assurance from the main Opposition political party that this Bill will be put through immediately and we hope to cajole the other major party," said Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke.

Fine Gael confirmed it had given a commitment to back the Bill. The party's spokesman on Public Enterprise, Mr Jim Higgins, said "as long as the contents of the bill meet with our approval, we will do everything possible to get it through". He added, however, that it would be difficult to do so in remaining Dáil time.

A Labour party spokesman said it was the responsibility of Government parties to ensure the passage of its own legislation, but added that, in the case of the Communications Bill, "I can't see us objecting to it."

The Bill would expand the powers of the telecommunications regulator and replace the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation with a three-person committee.

The new committee would be able to levy significant fines of up to €1 million on unco-operative telecommunications companies. The current limit is £1,500.

Ms O'Rourke said the regulator's office needed to be expanded because of "the huge burden of work" and noted that "fines and penalties were extremely low and didn't have any relevance".

Delays in introducing the Bill have been a serious concern for ICT industry leaders and lobby groups.

Several reports, including studies from the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, IBEC lobby group ICT Ireland, and the Department's own advisory committee on infoComms, have argued the Bill should be given top priority.

neverhappen

from aertel

URGENT ACTION ON COMMUNICATIONS BILL

---

The chairman of the Chambers of
Commerce of Ireland's digital business
council has called for the immediate
introduction of the Communications Bill
Annrai O'Toole says time is rapidly
running out, pointing out that a report
by the Government's own advisory
committee earlier this week highlighted
shortcomings in its broadband strategy.
The CCI wants the bill to be fast
tracked through the Oireachtas, warning
that otherwise the measures could be
delayed by a year.

pete

Originally posted by Clain
According to the Bill, the two Commissioners will be drawn from a Civil Service Competition - I am hoping that this means a competition run by the Civil Service, and not drawn from the pool of Civil Servants in Ireland - surely these roles would be more properly filled by Industry types?

Oh yes - that's what we need. More comms. industry types like Sir Tony, with no vested interests whatsoever.

Quite.

Civil Service does not automatically equate to incompetence, and private sector does not automatically equate to best practice.

mdf

All it means is that the Civil Service would run the recruitment process i.e. place the ad; but anyone would be eligible to apply. That's the process for all such jobs,

dahamsta

Whatcha reckon mdf, should I apply?

heh

adam

Stonemason

Id vote for Dahamsta




Stone:D

mdf

- What - and have a decentralised office in the real Irish capital?

dahamsta

- What - and have a decentralised office in the real Irish capital?

Well...

Nah.

I was going to suggest that I could, you know, move, but I'm afraid my loyalty to the Rodina is too great.

Course, if I had DSL down here, I could telecommute.

Irony, eh?

Comrade Adam

mdf

The REAL irony is that you'll probably get DSL before Dublin will....

aidan_dunne

Originally posted by Nuno
The new committee would be able to levy significant fines of up to €1 million on unco-operative telecommunications companies. The current limit is £1,500.

Ms O'Rourke said the regulator's office needed to be expanded because of "the huge burden of work" and noted that "fines and penalties were extremely low and didn't have any relevance".

What pi$$es me off here are Mary O' Rourke's comments. She says that the current fines and penalties are low and have no relevance but neither will the new fine of €1 million, at least not to a huge company like Eircom. The previous idea of 10% of profit or revenue or whatever it was would be much more realistic and would force Eircom to examine their practices and ridiculous pricing a bit further. But €1 million? That's just a drop in the ocean to Eircom.

dahamsta

The previous idea of 10% of profit or revenue or whatever it was would be much more realistic and would force Eircom to examine their practices and ridiculous pricing a bit further. But €1 million? That's just a drop in the ocean to Eircom.

I agree with you that the new fines are pretty pathetic Aidan. They're also illusory, in that there isn't much of a precendent for fining the full amount - judges are apparently lax to do this (this is hearsay, I have no proof).

However, several people have said to me that a percentage of revenue would be difficult, because they could be considered unconstitutional, and would almost certainly be challenged. (Not by Eircom?! No!) That's fair enough, but aren't flat fines discriminatory? Won't they discriminate against small ISP's (and "for" the larger ones)? And what about the future? Do we have to amend the legislation periodically to keep pace with inflation? Will we go through the same foot-dragging then as now?

At this stage though, it pretty much doesn't matter what I think, or you think. Because of course what's happened is that the Government has made a deal with Eircom, probably about employment. Probably something along the lines of: If you don't lay off 3,500 employees for a while, we won't attack you directly, we'll go around you, and give you a little time to prepare. In other words, they've sold us down the river for a short term gain to get back into power.

And in the process, they've put us all in the position of having to like it or lump it. If we try and get the Bill amended, we'll find ourselves past the General Election, in which case it will probably have to be redrafted. How long will that take? Another two years? Either way Eircom wins.

So what's better at this stage, let the current fine (on indictement) stand at £50,000, or battle the Bill and put it on the back boiler? Much as I dislike the prospect, I say take the Bill and keep on the battle armour.

[I realise that I'm sounding a bit partisan at this stage, but what do you expect?]

adam