Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

This does not make a change to the regulations. We are not providing for a new arrangement, whereby a business will decide that it will provide the service in a different way. The key body is ComReg which following the enactment of the legislation will have the exact same powers that it has currently6. It does not matter what other providers state; ComReg will have the same powers it has always had into the future to apply the provisions on a common-sense basis, as the directive requires, regardless of what any commercial interest may want. This is the public service looking after the public in a common-sense way. The same will apply after the legislation is enacted. There is nothing new in that regard. The wording refers solely to the role of ComReg and the approach taken by it in assessing the common-sense public interest approach adopted. It is merely doing what the directive states we should do, that is, including the existing requirements in primary legislation.