Brendan Kenneally (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. He seems to be spending a lot of time here lately. I welcome the arrival of this Bill, which deals with some very important, but not well-publicised, issues and makes provision for the safeguarding of essential services for citizens. It deals in essence with fixed and mobile telephony and has particular relevance to electronic communications, particularly the Internet and the less well-known ".ie" domain name registry.

I welcome in particular the strengthening of the enforcement powers of the Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg, which need to be formalised in a world in which few actually understand the system other than the specialists who operate it. The regulations under which the commission is working at present were introduced under the European Communities Act 1972, more than 30 years ago, which is, for some, a whole lifetime ago. There is no primary legislation to underpin what the regulator is doing. It cannot provide for indictable offences, for example, and has only summary jurisdiction under which to work.

When we consider the vast sums of money that the telephone companies turn over each year and the enormous profits they generate, we realise there is insufficient oversight of their operations and insufficient provision for bringing them to heel when appropriate. We need these mechanisms, which the Bill proposes, to make them toe the line.

I am pleased ComReg will be given the same kinds of powers the Competition Authority enjoys under Part 2 of the Competition Act. These new powers will also allow ComReg to investigate abuses of a company's position, such as is suggested in the case of Eircom's fixed-line network. Up to now, there was no effective communications legislation to deal with this and people will be glad to see that such an essential service as our telephone system is finally being brought into line in this regard. As a result of this legislation, ComReg will be in a much stronger position to prevent or eliminate abuse by a company in a dominant position, and will be able to impose substantial fines to bring some realism into the sector.

I note that under section 6, the Minister and the commission are being given information-gathering powers in regard to the technical operation and performance of telecommunications networks. This is essential because, from what we have seen so far, the various networks have not exactly been forthcoming with information in regard to their businesses. On the occasions when members of the Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources tried to question representatives of the telephone companies, particularly the mobile operators, they were stymied at every turn and put on the long finger. Senator Finucane will be well aware of this because he is a member of the committee. We found it almost impossible to obtain information and details on customer bases, how charges are linked to income, activity details, etc. The proposed measure will give the Minister and the commission the power to extract the information we require to properly balance and regulate the activities of the telecommunications companies. The net effect will have to be a better deal for the public.

Section 11 provides for the commission to require providers to attend before it and produce relevant documentation. With this clearly stated in legislation, the providers will not be able to seek the protection of the courts to stymie the intent of the Oireachtas. There are plenty of protections built into the section to provide for cases where it would be undesirable for someone to divulge information. However, where one has been found guilty of an offence, the fine of €5,000 per individual should focus minds. The penalties reflect the seriousness of the circumstances as we see them. With telecommunications likely to be a continually expanding business, we should get it right at this relatively early stage.

It is highly appropriate and practical for the Minister to have similar powers in the event that we need to react to the loss of one of the networks or some major upset affecting day-to-day business. Someone would have to be able to step in, establish all the facts quickly, take the necessary decisions and restore normality to the network in order that commercial and social Ireland would not experience the major disadvantage of not having a communications service.

One of the areas of difficulty and sometimes hardship for network subscribers is the high cost of roaming charges levied on them when they are abroad. They are scandalously high in some instances. In the case of Vodafone, roaming charges have been eliminated for users of its network in the United Kingdom, but this must be achieved for other networks also. Call charges are steep enough without criminally high roaming charges being imposed in addition. Call charges are steep enough without criminally high roaming charges being imposed as well. With the implementation of this measure, the commission or the Minister can establish all that information and act appropriately on it. In any event, we do not yet know to what extent technology will catch up with these conventional systems. I am not altogether familiar with them, but there are methods by which calls can be made by way of computer and telephone lines, which can deliver a lengthy call to the US for instance, for only a few cent. With the ongoing expansion of the world wide web, there will surely be many more developments in the future and who knows what systems may be used a decade hence.

In the meantime, the vast majority of people are dependent on the companies and networks we have and it is up to us to see that charges and service are at an acceptable level or be able to adequately determine why not. For many years we have depended on the goodwill of a wide range of companies to provide services on a goodwill basis in this country. One of these is the provision of an emergency call answering service. In ordinary terms, this is the 999 system as we used to know it and the 112 service being used on mobile phones today. Perhaps because the telephone system in Ireland developed from that provided directly by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, we took it for granted that the emergency service would be provided and maintained free of charge for every subscriber and from every phone.

Traditionally, when someone dialled 999, prominent red lights lit up on the switchboards in front of the operators and someone would immediately answer the call and connect to the relevant emergency service. That is the way it has been up to now and we should acknowledge the co-operation of the particular network operators which kept the service going. It is time now to bring this service into line with modern trends and requirements and Part 6 of the Bill provides for the formalising of this service between the Minister and an appointed EGAS agency. The service will be put out to tender and a private contractor appointed to administer it. It will be funded by all of the operators across the networks, who will exchange charges as appropriate.

I am glad to see that the Bill proposes to formalise the situation in regard to domain registry in respect of web sign ".ie". I want to acknowledge that this service is being administered in a very controlled manner, appropriate to its level of importance as a national service and resource. The .ie was allocated to this country by the International Organisation for Standardisation and is similar to the letters allocated to other countries in accordance with the two-letter code in the international standard. It is regulated to some extent under the Electronic Commerce Act 2000, but a great deal has happened within e-commerce since the passage of that legislation. The purpose of its inclusion in the Bill is to facilitate fairness, transparency and promotion of fair competition in the allocation and administration of domain names under the .ie extension.

The approval and allocation of such a domain name is administered privately, but in a very fair and disciplined way, with very little scope for abuse of the system. While it may be very easy for someone to register under the .com or .eu domain names, .ie is very tightly controlled and it is a requirement on every applicant to fully establish and justify his or her entitlement to a registration. This has maintained the integrity of the system which the Bill seeks to underpin and the administration of .ie will now come under the control of ComReg and the Minister.

Far from having been abused in the past, the system of domain registration for .ie was if anything, too restrictive, but with the number of Internet sites now being set up and requests for the registration of domain names with .ie, the same level of vetting is not possible. According to its own site:

The IEDR is the registry for .ie Internet Domain Names and maintains the database of .ie registered Internet names. The IEDR is an independent not-for-profit organisation that manages the .ie country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) namespace in the public interest of the Irish and global Internet communities. The IE Domain Registry is not a governing or regulatory body, but provides a public service for the .ie namespace on behalf of the Internet community.

I am told by reputable companies which register domain names that the IEDR is very well structured and managed at the moment. It is not slow to refuse or revoke a domain registration where appropriate, on the basis of a company not fulfilling its undertakings or even placing inappropriate material on its website. For instance, all applicants applying for a .ie domain name who are not situated in the 32 counties of Ireland, must demonstrate a real and substantive connection with Ireland. Examples of acceptable documentation demonstrating substantial trade or commercial activity within Ireland include copies of invoices; showing trade to or from Ireland; high-quality brochures displaying a significant intention to trade in Ireland; and a signed letter on headed paper from a bank manager, firm of chartered accountants, registered auditors and tax consultants — where the tax advisor identification number is displayed — or solicitors, confirming the applicant's trade relationship with Ireland.

All this demonstrates how seriously registration has been taken so far, but it is a growing responsibility. It is such an important resource for the country as a whole that its future effective and honest administration justifies this being guaranteed by giving ComReg an official watchdog status in the process, to avoid mistakes and unfair situations, as happened under other domain registrations. For example, there was the high-profile case some years ago of the domain name of www.waterford.com being registered by a young person and subsequently sold to the company. As currently constituted, and with the level of vetting applied to applications, that would not happen in the case of .ie. Proof of a bona fide business is required and there is cross-checking with the Companies Office and other agencies before a .ie domain name is registered. We have to maintain the integrity and stature of .ie as a domain register and its inclusion in the Minister's and the commission's remit will help towards that end.

Section 16 has a very important and welcome provision in regard to infrastructure sharing. There has been a certain amount of abuse in the past in regard to the ducting and cabling installed by developers in new housing estates, whereby the subsequent occupiers of the houses were tied to one telecommunications provider in almost a monopoly situation. This is now being addressed and will eliminate such restrictive practice in the future.

I am very pleased to see that section 7 provides for what we refer to as a whistleblower's charter for wrongdoing within the communications industry. We have seen the value of disclosures made by courageous individuals in the past, often with adverse consequences because they had no protection in legislation. It is only proper that anyone who makes a disclosure as regards wrongdoing in the communications industry should have legal protection against civil and criminal liability. We have to avail of every opportunity to maintain the integrity of one of our most important industries and the Bill goes a long way towards dealing with many of the deficiencies in communications in Ireland at the moment. I commend the Bill to the House.