Results 6,721-6,740 of 11,242 for speaker:Noel Dempsey

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: Deputy Broughan is correct, but while we know what a whistleblower is, putting it into words in a Bill might have a negative effect. We would need to define all of the circumstances in which someone might make a disclosure. I can imagine what lawyers might attempt to do in respect of someone who discloses this type of information. If we include a definition, the lawyers will examine it...

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: Deputy Broughan described it well in talking about how to define an elephant on paper. Writing a definition of a whistleblower might provide someone an opportunity to argue the case. While the information was of a nature that it should have been disclosed, people could get off on a technicality through a lawyer's argument that the person who disclosed the information did not fit the...

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: The Commission for Communications Regulation was established on 1 July. That is why ComReg's financial year starts at that time of the year, rather than on 1 January. The amendment relates to the provision whereby ComReg will be required to produce an annual action plan outlining its principal planned activities and an associated annual financial forecast before the end of its financial...

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: I move amendment No. 34: In page 15, line 23, after "Minister" to insert the following: "and arrange for a copy of the plan to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas". This amendment has been proposed on foot of last week's Committee Stage discussion on amendments tabled by Deputies Durkan and Broughan. I agreed at the time to give further consideration to their proposal. It is now...

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: One can argue either way in regard to this matter which was discussed when the Bill was being prepared. I am not making a political point when I suggest that if Deputy Broughan were Minister and I were in opposition, he would make the argument I am making and vice versa. Having consulted a number of interests, including the Office of the Attorney General, and examined the submissions made...

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: It is neither appropriate nor necessary to provide for the dissolution of the ECAP in primary legislation. ECAP was established under the framework regulations of 2003. Any changes to the appeals structure could be facilitated by secondary legislation. The Bill is concerned with competition and anti-competitive practices. ECAP is mainly concerned with decisions about significant market...

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: The majority of the Bill deals with competition and co-competition powers. ECAP must remain in respect of general decisions and directives that ComReg might issue. The commercial court, at High Court level, may be the place for such disputes, but we have not made a decision on that.

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: I move amendment No. 43: In page 20, line 12, to delete "an oral or written" and substitute "a written".

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: I would be.

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: The intention of amendment No. 9 is that the development of the mobile telephony sector should be monitored and provide a basis for intervention. The framework regulations, which transposed the framework directive in 2003, have already set out the procedures for the imposition of specific obligations in the electronic communications sector. All interventions must be evidence-based. The...

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: I asked the ComReg commissioners to advise me on how that type of a situation could best be prevented. I said in the House at that time that if legislation was necessary, we would introduce it.

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: The commissioners examined the matter at my request and decided they could handle it without causing too much damage in the market by putting a protocol in place to help protect customers should a similar situation arise in the future. That protocol seeks to manage the risks associated with such a situation and to try to minimise disruption to customers. There was no statutory provision at...

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: The Deputy is right. That is the reason I will not accept this amendment. There is no point in having three bodies responsible for this area. In addition to that, the Data Protection Commissioner also has some strong investigatory and prosecution powers with regard to unsolicited electronic communications for direct marketing purposes. Amendment No. 11 is unnecessary. What it proposes...

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: On amendment No. 13, I understood from what the Deputies said on this amendment that they were concerned about local loop unbundling.

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: This is already legally mandated. Responsibility for the promotion and regulation of local loop unbundling lies with ComReg under section 10(4) of the Communications Regulation Act 2002 and the transposed EU regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services. Access to Eircom's or any other operator's network is governed by the directives that comprise the EU...

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: It will be a tendering process. It would not be advisable to come into the House and suggest we were willing to pay millions of euro to somebody to provide this service and provide them with a map showing the last 10% or 15% of the country which needs to be covered by broadband and invite offers. It would not be very smart to intimate the amount we would pay as it might be possible that...

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: I assure the Deputies opposite that the Taoiseach's speech, which was so well received by most of the public and which so upset the Opposition——

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: ——is only a small portion of the very considerable policy manifesto Fianna Fáil will be putting before the people in a few months. The Deputies should not be too upset at this stage. They will be very upset — they will probably have a nervous breakdown — by the time the election is called given that they are becoming so excited now. I thank Deputy Broughan for his customary...

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: The Deputy will be aware that there were 63,600 broadband subscribers in 2004 but there is now much more than 500,000. When the Deputy is still in opposition next December I will expect that figure to be approximately 700,000.

Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (27 Mar 2007)

Noel Dempsey: The Deputy is probably considerably younger than me but he is incorrect when he states that people are forced to wait longer for a telephone now than in the mid-1970s when his colleague was Minister for Posts and Telegraphs and there were waiting lists of up to five and seven years in my area——