Vol. 491 No. 6
39 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the number of meetings which she held with the chief executive of Esat Telecom where she discussed the Telecom Éireann derogation issue with him; the number of discussions, if any, she held with the board of Telecom Éireann or its directors on the issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12798/98]
In my role as Minister responsible for the communications sector, I have regular meetings with companies and organisations with an interest in the development of the sector. In this regard, I have met with Mr. Denis O'Brien on three occasions in my office when I was accompanied by senior officials. The liberalisation of the sector and the regulatory framework for competition would have formed part of the discussion on these occasions. I have met formally with the board of Telecom Éireann on two occasions in the context of my role as shareholder and have met the chairman and other directors a number of times and again the derogation issue has been touched on in the discussions. I have also discussed with both companies the need for Eircell and Esat Digifone to provide full information and opportunities for consultation to local communities about the roll-out of mobile telecommunications infrastructure. I decided to bring forward the timescale for implementation of full competition in the telecommunications sector to later this year because this is transparently necessary to meet the needs of business for high quality cost effective telecommunications services. The early implementation of liberalisation has been separately and repeatedly called for by IBEC, Forfás and the National Competitiveness Council.
