Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 17 January 2013

Public Accounts Committee

Commission for Aviation Regulation - Financial Statement 2011
Commission for Communications Regulation - Financial Statement 2011
Commission for Energy Regulation - Financial Statement 2011

11:15 am

Mr. Alex Chisholm:

That is set out in the accounts. The approach we took, with the guidance of the Comptroller and Auditor General, has been to expense the costs as we have gone along and not to anticipate the revenue, which, by its nature, is an uncertain thing. Each year we have been recording the costs of in our accounts. In 2011 there was something in the order of €700,000 or €800,000 in consulting expenses associated with the 4G project. There were also considerable legal costs, both internally and in working with external firms, associated with the requirement to prepare adequately and ensure all of our work, throughout the process, was watertight and capable of withstanding legal challenge. In fact, our aim was to ensure it would not invite legal challenge. One must put these expenses against the end result in terms of what we got from the process, and the proof of the pudding is that there has been no challenge. If there had been, it would have involved not only a huge cost and a long drawn-out court case but also, crucially, a great degree of uncertainty for operators without any benefits for customers.