Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There was a push on to get the pre-legislative scrutiny through on the basis that there could be fines. I put it to the Department that the committee values very seriously the work that we do here. We want to assist in making legislation robust. We will look at this and, as a committee, we will come back collectively on it.

Will Mr. Mourik indicate how many mobile phone and broadband companies ComReg has issued fines to in the past 12 months in respect of issues such as dealing with consumer complaints? I want to get to the heart of why this legislation is coming in, what powers the commission currently has and how many fines it has issued. What are the commission's powers? The key to this is that members of this committee have listened to programmes such as "Liveline" and other programmes on RTÉ. The constant complaint is that people are waiting an inordinate amount of time with any mobile phone or broadband provider, in many cases even to get to speak to someone on the phone. The commission is the regulator in this area. How many fines have been imposed?