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Comreg & BAI to merge - Quango Critical Review by June 2012

  • 20-11-2011 10:01pm
    #1
    The Cush
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,848 ✭✭✭✭


    Last week the Dept of Public Expenditure and Reform announced 48 quangos that will be merged, abolished etc. in 2012.

    It also announced 46 other quangos that will be critically reviewed by the end of June next year amongst them Comreg and the BAI for possible merger.

    The merger of Comreg and the BAI was part of the manifestos of the two government parties. When the two parties were in opposition and during the debates on the Broadcasting Bill they then argued that the two authorities be merged - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=71123637

    http://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/item/24558-public-sector-reform-hits/


Comments

  • #2
    watty
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,417 ✭✭✭✭watty


    Twice the cost and half as much achieved.

    Will a single civil servant be redundant like in a Private Industry Merger? No.


  • #3
    Sam Russell
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 20,138 Mod ✭✭✭✭Sam Russell


    watty wrote: »
    Twice the cost and half as much achieved.

    Will a single civil servant be redundant like in a Private Industry Merger? No.

    No, but there will be the advantage that a new job will be created for someone to be the new chief of the combined entity. Could even be a political friend, but maybe not.


  • #4
    icdg
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 12,062 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    Something recognised by the UK long ago that broadcasting and communications should be under the one roof, with their merger of a miriad of communications and broadcasting authorities back in 2002 to form Ofcom. (Of course whether Ofcom's lived up to its potential is a different thing entirely).

    This legal fiction, whereby the BAI grants a "programme contract" to a company and Comreg then grants the BAI a "broadcasting licence" for the same service is madness (and stems from the government copying the old UK legislation whereby the IBA granted programme contracts and was itself granted a broadcasting licence by the Home Office). There should be one document covering content and technical specifications (called a broadcasting licence) and one body should grant it. That reform was made in the UK as long ago as 1991.


  • #5
    Mike 1972
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,018 ✭✭✭Mike 1972


    icdg wrote: »
    This legal fiction, whereby the BAI grants a "programme contract" to a company and Comreg then grants the BAI a "broadcasting licence" for the same service is madness

    Doesnt COMREG also have to award a licence to the "BAI contractor" in order for them to be able to legally posses the broadcasting equipment ?


  • #6
    icdg
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 12,062 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    Mike 1972 wrote: »
    Doesnt COMREG also have to award a licence to the "BAI contractor" in order for them to be able to legally posses the broadcasting equipment ?

    My reading is no, and it would be an absolute absuridity if they did, which would really underscore my point. But s59(3) Broadcasting Act 2009 appears to relieve the contractor of any obligation to seek a seperate licence by allowing them to avail of the licence granted to the BAI in relation to the service they are running.

    "59.— (1) The Authority shall not authorise a broadcasting contractor to operate a broadcasting transmitter and provide a broadcasting service under a broadcasting contract unless and until the Communications Regulator has granted under this subsection to the Authority a licence (“broadcasting licence”) under section 5 of the Act of 1926 in respect of the sound or television broadcasting transmitter to which the contract relates.

    (2) A broadcasting licence shall be valid only for such period of time as a broadcasting contract between the Authority and a broadcasting contractor is in force.

    (3) Every broadcasting contract shall contain a condition requiring the broadcasting contractor concerned to establish, maintain and operate the broadcasting transmitter concerned in accordance with such terms and conditions as the Communications Regulator attaches to the broadcasting licence to which the contract relates (including any variations made to it in accordance with section 60 ), and so long as the terms and conditions are complied with, the contract has the effect of conveying the benefits of the licence to the broadcasting contractor and any such transmitter so established, maintained and operated shall be deemed to be licensed for the purposes of the Act of 1926.

    (4) Every broadcasting licence shall be open to inspection by members of the public at the Authority’s registered office, at such times as the Authority considers reasonable during office opening hours.
    "


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