Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 10, between lines 22 and 23, to insert the following:

"(d) by inserting the following after subsection (1)(e):

"(f) to invigilate the volumes and revenues of international and national mobile telecom services including all termination rates,";".

These amendments are to amend section 10 of the 2002 Act as the Minister should have further expanded the powers of the commission. One of the difficulties the Opposition encountered in its invigilation of the Bill is the ten Acts and 15 statutory instruments which are being amended by this Bill. I refer to three Acts which formerly were important pieces of legislation including the Communications Regulation Act 2002, the Competition Act and the Electronic Commerce Act. The extension of ComReg's powers into co-competition and the power to prosecute anti-competitive moves in the communications market needed strengthening. The functions of ComReg are outlined in section 10 of the Communications Regulation Act 2002. Under this Act the former regulatory body, the Office of Director of Telecommunications Regulation, was subsumed into ComReg. These amendments are old chestnuts which have been discussed many times during Question Time. If the questions on broadband had been dealt with during Question Time this afternoon I would have been able to bring to the Minister's attention the latest ComReg findings but he has probably already issued a statement trumpeting that 517,000 lines have been installed.

The Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, has been informed of the widespread belief that mobile phone users are still being ripped off despite the invigilation by the Minister's Department in the past three years. I refer to the recent European Consumers' Organisation, BEUC, report which showed the Department was not aware of the revenues being earned by the major mobile phone companies from roaming charges. I chaired a joint committee meeting on this subject. The information from both ComReg and the Department was gravely deficient. This amendment seeks to give ComReg a role in the assessment of this kind of information. ComReg quotes statistics but international indices show that Ireland shows extremely high revenues per user which are higher than in many other jurisdictions. My amendments propose new subsections in the Bill.

Amendment No. 10 relates to the Minister's reaction to Smart Telecom's collapse six months ago. He stated he would introduce emergency legislation to ensure that would never happen again, that no telecommunications company could cite reasons such as cash-flow problems for the withdrawal of service. As a result of the collapse of Smart Telecom a number of businesses were left without communications on the days in question, including a number of medical practices. The collapse of the Smart Telecom service, even for a few days, was a serious event. My amendment No. 10 proposes an addition to the functions of ComReg to ensure that undertakings provide at least 30 days' prior notice for the withdrawal of any electronic communications service or product to end-users. The Minister promised to do so but 30 weeks later nothing has been done except the publication of this Bill which has been a long time coming. The Minister has not introduced any methodology for ensuring that a similar situation does not arise again. It seems that neither ComReg nor the Department have the requisite information in this regard.

Amendment No. 11 proposes a new function for ComReg to regulate the content, promotion and pricing information for all premium rate telecoms' services. The premium rate telecom service industry is self-regulated by Regtel. This amendment proposes that the functions of Regtel be absorbed into ComReg to make it responsible for the promotion and pricing of premium rate telephone calls. The issues of content and the suitability of content, the vulnerability of children and other vulnerable users also arise and the Department and the statutory regulator should have a role in this regard. It would be possible to establish Regtel as a statutory body under another Bill but in my view this is well suited to ComReg's functions.

Amendment No. 12 proposes a Labour Party policy which has been in our policy document for the past two years and in which we believe. It proposes to regulate a universal service obligation for all broadband undertakings.

The Minister has been promising the House for the past year that he will take action to ensure Ireland becomes completely broadband-enabled. We seem to be very near a general election, the date of which only the Taoiseach knows. The Minister has not taken any action. The industry is telling the Opposition that some major announcement is imminent. I was expecting the Taoiseach to include it in his famous rant last Saturday night when he made so many promises he might as well have promised to broadband the country and to give a universal service obligation.

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