Communications Legislation Dropped

rardagh

The Communications Bill has been pushed out until after the election, essentially perhaps 2003+ (if at all), in favour of the Digital Ghetto:

http://www.gov.ie/taoiseach/legislation/frmain.htm

This means that the ODTR won't have the powers she needs in the foreseeable future to push through competitive DSL pricing and that the only piece of telecoms legislation the DPE has brought forward in this dail has been for the Eircom IPO (which also strengthened the states tapping and interception powers)....


New Article in The Irish Times today, by Jamie Smyth

Communications Bill falls to end of Oireachtas list

zenith

IOFFL should release a press release this evening, condemning the failure to move forward with this bill and the data protection bill.

vinnyfitz

I agree this is very disappointing news.

But I note that the statement is dated 28 September. It is a pity none of us spotted it earlier.

The Government's commitment to sorting out this mess really has to be called into question now.

I agree a statement should be issued on this. Something along the lines "O'Rourke abandons powerless Regulator while Ireland's claim to be an e-hub falls in tatters."

rardagh

Mr. Brian Patterson, Chairman of the National Competitiveness Council issued a Press Release today including this about telecoms:

"One of the areas that the National Competitiveness Council is particularly concerned about is telecommunications. At present, small users, including many small businesses, still have no access to broadband services, while the costs that bigger users face vary considerably depending on location. ‘We have set ourselves the objective of being a hub for e-business’, Mr. Patterson said. ‘But how can that be possible when we do not have competitive broadband access at this late stage.’ "

tHE vAGGABOND

we may be an e-hub in the eyes of the government..

in reality were an e-patch pannel, and the rest of europe seem to be e-routers

vinnyfitz

Well spotted rardagh

The Competitveness Council has a lot of credibility with Government and the media. The fact that Broadband is singled out for special mention in the press release is really positive for our campaign.

A statement from the committee tying Patterson's comments today and the Government's backtracking on proper powers for the regulator would be timely.

Urban Weigl

Originally posted by tHE vAGGABOND
we may be an e-hub in the eyes of the government..

in reality were an e-patch pannel, and the rest of europe seem to be e-routers

nah, more like the e-piece-of-string-and-some-cans of europe

SkepticOne

Good article in Irish Times.

The telecoms regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, has consistently voiced concern ver a lack of penalty powers available to her office to force telecoms firms to comply with its directives.

The proposed Bill would enable a new commission to fine a telecoms operator up to 10 per cent of its revenue if it failed to comply with a directive.

My worry is that the Government will go into "job protection mode" as the economy turns down. They may find it more politically acceptable to protect jobs in Eircom at the expense of jobs in the larger economy.

SkepticOne

Just noticed that the article link has been edited in to the first post on this thread

dahamsta

Originally posted by zenith
IOFFL should release a press release this evening, condemning the failure to move forward with this bill and the data protection bill.

Just a quick note on this, since someone mentioned it in another thread - see, our press officer is pregnant, due to give birth next week I think, and I presume she has other matters on her mind. And you know what I'm like, it'd just turn into the usual ravings. So that's why there hasn't been press releases.

adam

rardagh

Folks,

The Government (Minister Noel Dempsey) are currently asking the public to comment on their infrastructure development strategy, including telecommunications.

"It will provide the opportunity for the public at large, representative organisations and interest groups to make submissions outlining their views and preferences on the options for development that are presented in the indications paper."

Request for Public Comment

They have based their current telecoms thoughts on a document, the executive summary of which is linked below:

Study of Ireland's Telecom Infrastructure

This is a real opportunity for Ireland Offline members to target a policy making process directly.