Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will be sharing time with colleagues.

The Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg, has been operating with one hand tied behind its back, which has allowed poor standards and customer service problems to go unaddressed. As in the energy sector, the Government established an independent regulator but left it without the teeth needed to enforce standards of quality properly. At the time, we called for the introduction of legislation to provide for much larger sanctions that would act as a deterrent to communications companies treating their customers with contempt. Here we are two years on. The Bill is better late than never, though, and I welcome its provisions and recognise the effort to ensure due diligence in terms of providing ComReg with the necessary powers to clamp down on poor standards and behaviour among communications companies.

I will mention another regulator that falls under the remit of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and is operating without enough powers, namely, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. It has a number of questions to answer, but some of the problems fall at the Minister's door. A couple of weeks ago, the CRU confirmed to the climate committee that it lacked the legislative remit to govern standing charges. This means that utility companies can hike their standing charges without having to prove to anyone that there has been a corresponding increase in their fixed costs. It is a recipe for disaster. Despite households decreasing their energy usage, they are now being stung for more money via higher standing charges. This behaviour from energy companies will not help to encourage lower energy use in normal times. The Minister needs to address this. He should introduce emergency legislation to give the regulator the power to regulate standing charges and beef up its consumer protection abilities.

We recently learned that domestic electricity customers had paid €600 million over the past decade to subsidise large energy users' costs. This was an incredible revelation in the Irish Independent. The CRU has now cancelled that charge, but it has replaced it with another one. We need an explanation for this from the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. He was the Minister with responsibility when the charge was introduced during the recession, so he cannot wash his hands of it now. I ask that he clarify what was happening. The Minister should also address the gaps in the powers that the CRU requires in order to protect consumers fully.

Returning to the Bill, ComReg was established 20 years ago, so it is well past time that it be given proper enforcement powers. ComReg has a wide and important remit over a large number of companies in the telephone, mobile, broadband and broadcasting sectors. The current legislation requires ComReg to pursue civil and criminal sanctions through the courts. In transposing the European electronic communications code, EECC, this Bill will establish a new civil enforcement regime for ComReg, which will allow ComReg to make declarations of non-compliance and impose a range of penalties instead of having to apply to the High Court. This is a positive move, as I hope it can speed up these processes and not leave them caught in the court system for years. It is proposed that the penalties can include administrative financial sanctions up to a maximum of €5 million or 10% of annual turnover, up from the current maximum of €500,000, which simply does not act as a strong enough deterrent for multimillion euro - sometimes multibillion euro - companies in these sectors. Providing ComReg with enhanced enforcement powers, particularly the power to find non-compliance and impose administrative financial sanctions, would bring the regulator further in line with equivalent regulatory bodies in the State.

The Bill would also provide for ComReg to set minimum quality of service standards in the areas of customer service, complaint handling, switching, billing and refunds. I hope that this will address the problems that many people face when trying to get simple answers from, and issues resolved by, phone, TV, mobile and broadband providers. As acknowledged by the Minister of State, it can often take an age to get answers to simple questions and resolving straightforward technical issues can be a mammoth task when dealing with certain communication companies. There is no excuse for this. It is causing particular issues for people who are now working from home and are more reliant on their phones and broadband. Some people dread ringing telecoms companies because they can spend hours on the phone and still not get their problems resolved. Introducing minimum quality of service standards in this area will help to change the bad behaviour of some companies that show contempt for their customers.

One of the most annoying issues for mobile and email users is the constant stream of scam calls, text messages and emails. These are getting more sophisticated and advanced and can result in people losing thousands of euro. People are now receiving text messages with fraudulent links attached in the midst of the thread of legitimate messages from their banks. Others are plagued with scam phone calls and spam emails. Victims of text message scams were cheated out of an average of €1,700 during the first half of 2022 according to figures from FraudSMART, the fraud awareness initiative from Banking & Payments Federation Ireland. I understand that an industry-led task force, facilitated by ComReg, has been established to identify and recommend practical interventions that might be taken by operators in the short, medium and long terms to combat nuisance communications. The Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, might provide an update on this work.

The Minister of State will be aware that the European Commission launched infringement proceedings against Ireland over the Government's failure to transpose the EECC within the required timeframe. Will he update the House on whether this has resulted in financial penalties being levied and how much has been spent on the State's legal defence since Ireland was referred to the European Court of Justice in April?

I welcome the introduction of the Bill. It is vital that our regulators have the powers needed to protect consumers and clamp down on poor standards among some providers. I look forward to dealing with the particulars of the Bill on Committee Stage. I note the number of amendments from the Minister that were late additions, particularly those relating to the Digital Hub Development Agency Act 2003. I will discuss them with my colleagues and I look forward to engaging with the Minister of State on them.

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