National Broadband Plan Implementation

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 23 September 2015

Wednesday, 23 September 2015

Questions (145)

Thomas Pringle

Question:

145. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the regulatory oversight his Department will have on the broadband intervention strategy in terms of supervising universal service obligations, wholesale access conditions, wholesale physical network infrastructure access, retail authorisations, wholesale-retail contract oversight, dispute resolutions, service level agreements, quality of service standards, monitoring of significant market power, normally the job of the regulation but which has been given a limited role until the intervention is complete; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32445/15]

Written answers

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

Section 7.7 of the National Broadband Plan Intervention Strategy which I published for public consultation in July last sets out the governance issues that need to be addressed to ensure robust management of the contract or contracts put in place following the NBP procurement process. The accompanying governance report by our expert advisors contains greater detail on the full range of governance issues. Both documents are available at www.broadband.gov.ie. As the contracting authority, it is envisaged that my Department will be responsible for the overall management of the contract(s), including contract governance.

The contract(s) would be monitored and reviewed to ensure consistency with existing and any future telecommunications regulatory framework.

ComReg will continue to exercise its day-to-day regulatory functions in relation to telecommunications market.