Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This leads into a new area. What role will the Minister have in drawing up the licence agreement? Did we cover this already? The Minister will have to approve the licence. I have to draw the Minister's attention to this, the mobile telephone licences are a parallel situation. The communications regulator, not the Minister, issues the licence for the various mobile telephone companies. At the Committee of Public Accounts I complained to the regulator that I could not get a signal on my new iPhone. He told me that in the licence he had issued he had specified a requirement for a lower level of coverage for the population using the new iPhones under the 3G licence than under the old 2G licence. That has had a phenomenal impact on people buying iPhones who have no signal because the regulator went soft on the companies about their coverage. The Minister did not seem to have a role there. What role will the Minister have in the terms of this licence. Why buy a dog if you are going to bark? The Minister is setting up a regulator but he is going to call the shots. Why does he need a regulator?