Dail gives long-delayed Communications Bill top priority

The Cabinet has agreed to give the long-delayed Communications Bill top priority in an attempt to get it passed into law before the general election.

The delay in advancing the Bill - initially to have been on the books more than a year ago - has become a major lobbying point for many technology and telecommunications companies. They see the Bill as critical to resolving nagging broadband and telecommunications infrastructure issues.

Key provisions of the Bill would extend the single-person role of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation into a three-person committee, greatly strengthen the penalties that can be applied to telecommunications companies that don't comply with the Regulator's rulings, and require telecoms companies to share resources.

The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke is understood to have pushed the bill to the top of the Dáil agenda and received the backing of Cabinet on Wednesday. "They agreed to accelerate the Bill, to get it published by Easter, and hopefully, have it read and on the books by the time of the election," confirmed a Department of Public Enterprise spokesman.

With pre-election Dáil time already limited, however, it is uncertain that the Bill can be read and approved before an election is called. The Dáil's Easter recess will further eat into time that could be given over to the Bill.

The Government should introduce the Bill immediately as any further delay in its passage could have a serious impact on the economy, said Mr Annrai O'Toole, executive chairman of Cape Clear Software and chair of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland's Digital Business Council."