Vol. 487 No. 6
31 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the action, if any, she proposes to take on the recommendation of Forfás that the power of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation be extended to include promoting competition and protecting the interests of business customers. [4521/98]
I take it that the Deputy is referring to the Forfás year-end review issued on 15 January 1998.
The powers of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation are being extended to include the promotion of competition and to protect the interests of all customers, including business customers, through the transposition into Irish law of relevant EU directives.
In particular, over the last number of months, this has been done though the transposition of Directive 95/62 on the application of the open network provision to voice telephony and Directive 97/33 in relation to interconnection. The transposition on 31 October 1997 of EU Directive 95/62 on the application of the open network provision in relation to voice telephony has provided for a framework of consumer rights for telephone users, including business users, when dealing with Telecom Éireann. The regulations extend both the obligations on Telecom Éireann as monopoly provider of voice telephony services and the powers of the director in regard to a range of matters relating to the services offered by the company.
Among the obligations imposed on Telecom Éireann are those covering the publication of details of the services offered, minimum standards of service to be delivered and those to ensure that voice telephony tariffs are cost-oriented and transparently set. The director's powers include those in relation to the monitoring of Telecom Éireann's compliance with its obligations and supervising any special tariff schemes introduced by the company.
The regulations transposing EU Directive 97/33 on interconnection which I signed into force on 22 January 1998 have enhanced the director's powers further to include specific powers to oversee the terms of interconnection agreements between operators and to resolve any disputes that arise in this regard. These regulations are significant in that they give rights of interconnection with the Telecom Éireann network to the many emerging and new operators in the Irish telecommunications sector. The regulations establish strict rules of pricing and should have a significant downward effect on the costs involved in this area which can account for about 40 per cent of the total costs of new operators.
These developments are part of an ongoing process of enhancing the powers of the director and of ensuring that effective competition exists in the marketplace. Further measures will be put in place before the introduction of full competition into the Irish telecommunciations market on 1 January 2000, including, in particular, in the course of transposition of Directive 97/13 which deals with the licensing of telecommunications operators and requires national regulatory authorities to be duly empowered to ensure compliance with licence conditions of operators.
