Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their opening statements and for the briefing document. Many of the points I had intended to raise have been covered. There was a reference to the transposing of the EU code and the updating of the 2002 Act. They are kind of background issues that the consumer will not really be concerned with. While they are important, they are quite technical and will not be very impactful on the ground. There is also the issue of sanctions. To clarify, ComReg deals with landline companies, mobile network companies and broadband provision, as well as text messages within the mobile network. I understand the Virgin Media provision of television services and cable television does not come under that. I wished to clarify that, given some of these providers also provide broadband and phone lines along with cable television and so on.

What will ComReg be able to do in future that it cannot do now? What will be the difference in the day-to-day operation of the regulator? Will it have sanctions it can issue or sanctions it can issue more quickly? I regularly hear the complaint, as I am sure most people do, that when a person calls Vodafone, for example, he or she must spend time waiting in a queue to get a response, and he or she will then be promised X but it does not happen. I have heard endless examples of people having just given up because they cannot spend 30, 40 or 50 minutes doing that. It seems to happen all the time, not just at 9 a.m. on a Monday. Will ComReg be able to set minimum standards such that a call must be dealt with within a certain period, such as five, seven or ten minutes? We all appreciate that call centres cannot be staffed with thousands of employees 24-7 and there will always be spikes where a network goes down and so on, but will ComReg be able to set minimum standards? Will it be able to insist, for example, that disputes must be resolved or brought to the next level within a certain period? Not every dispute will be resolved satisfactorily, but at least there could be some level of closure whereby there would be a response to say the reason it will not be resolved to the person's satisfaction relates to the fact that, say, the person failed to read the documentation, the contract or whatever the case may be. What will ComReg be able to do, thanks to this legislation, that it cannot do currently?