Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and welcome the witnesses. I think it is Ms Dixon's first appearance before the committee in the same way as it is mine so hopefully, we will have plenty of very positive encounters as we have had in the past in various other committees on which I have served. I wish her the very best in her new role. I believe she was appointed in February. I had the opportunity to read through all the information that was provided to me but I only got the opportunity to do so this morning so rather than get into the minutiae of some of the issues that she raised in her opening statement, I will ask questions along the line of Senator Dooley's questions concerning her new powers within the authority and enforcement issues.

One of the big questions that any authority, particularly one that is about 20 years old, faces when given new authority is the question of whether it has the relevant competencies and-or the relevant corporate governance structures. This is always important when one is looking in as this committee is as the committee with responsibility for ComReg's authority. Could Ms Dixon spend some time providing answers to that? What has happened since the authority was provided with those new powers in June 2023?

What is her role in the promotion of competition in the market? The Irish consumer is relatively well served in terms of service regarding the capacity of the mobile phone network, in particular, for people to be able to communicate but I cannot help but feel that we do not have sufficient competition in the mobile telecommunications market. That is something that always concerns me because more competition tends to lead to improved services and lower prices. Could Ms Dixon touch upon that in her response?

My next question concerns an interpretation of data protection and there is no better person to ask than her. I will not name it because it is not relevant but my mobile phone operator has a peculiar take on advertisement messages versus services messages. They are lumped in together. I was in a country that ended in "stan" - I cannot remember which one - on behalf of the Oireachtas ten years ago. The country did not have a reciprocal arrangement with our domestic provider. Even though I was on pretty much the top package with loads of minutes to spend all over the world as I was expected to travel with this particular international body, I did not get a text message telling me that this was my rate while I was abroad. I did not get that message that people get when they turn on their phones at the airport. I did not think much of it because I had not been getting it for years. The next thing was that about two or three hours into my election observation mission, I got a text message telling me that I had consumed €50 in credit. I was confused because I am a bill payer. I thought it was peculiar so I rang Vodafone - I said the name but I did not mean to and I am very happy with the company otherwise - got a call back and established that these annoying advertisements it was sending me by text message that I had opted out from were linked to its service messages, including that data notice that customers get, warnings and the roaming data. Does ComReg have a function in this area? Is this something that is still in existence with the organisation? I still get the advertisements but I also get the notification of roaming when I happen to travel abroad, for example, to the UK, which is now external.

My next question concerns enforcement and the fact that ComReg now has the regulatory authority to enforce operations rather than wait on matters to be determined by the courts. Similar to what Senator Dooley had to say, is there a sufficiently robust arrangement in domestic and European law for ComReg to pursue that? Does Ms Dixon feel that ComReg has sufficient resources to hire the relevant individuals? I go back to my first point about appropriate staffing and governance structures. Does ComReg have the capacity to do that? Has its recruitment of those individuals been successful since those new powers were given to it in June 2023? I appreciate how difficult it is for bodies to recruit at the moment.