16 Ean 2013, 14:20
The Committee of Public Accounts will consider the financial statements of the Commission for Aviation Regulation; Commission for Communication Regulation; and Commission for Energy Regulation at its meeting tomorrow, Thursday, 17th January 2013.
Cathal Guiomard, Commissioner for Aviation Regulation; Alex Chisholm, Chairperson, Commission for Communication Regulation; and Dermot Nolan, Chairperson, Commission for Energy Regulation will appear before the Committee.
Committee Chairman John McGuinness said: “Among the key Issues in relation to the Commission for Energy Regulation are: customer disconnections; what the Commission are doing in terms of oversight; and what the Commission is doing currently in the area of gas price de-regulation. Progress on smart metering could also be explored as well as the planned outsourcing of some customer contacts, while the future implications if CER takes on water regulation is also issue which may be considered.
“The results of the recent 4G licences auction, market growth in the industry, the postal sector’s liberalisation and An Post’s next day delivery target of 94% are among the issues which will be examined with ComReg. How ComReg ensures that rural communities are facilitated in terms of mobile coverage and broadband could also be explored, as could ComReg’s current data protection problems.
“In relation to aviation regulation, among the topics which will be examined by the Committee are what the Commission is doing in relation to price caps and price regulation and the new cap on IAA charges dependent on minimum service levels. We will want to ascertain are airlines paying compensation as required or are ‘exceptional circumstances’ being overused as a reason not to. The Committee could also explore the results of the EU ‘fitness check’ on the internal aviation market and international benchmarking.”
This meeting starts at 10am on Thursday, 17th January in Committee Room 1, LH 2000.
Committee proceedings can be followed live at: http://bit.ly/24YmPI
For further information please contact:
Ciaran Brennan,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Communications Unit,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
P: +3531 618 3903
M: 086-0496518
F: +3531 618 4551
Committee of Public Accounts
Membership
John McGuinness (Chairman)
Kieran O’Donnell (Vice Chairman)
Paul J Connaughton,
John Deasy,
Paschal Donohoe,
Gerald Nash,
Simon Harris,
Michael McCarthy,
Mary Lou McDonald,
Sean Fleming,
Eoghan Murphy,
Derek Nolan,
Shane Ross