The Cabinet is expected to approve major changes in the policing of the telecommunications sector this week, including the establishment of a commission to oversee further deregulation.
The current Director of Telecommunications Regulation, Ms Etain Doyle, who was reappointed to her position just two months ago, is expected to be asked to serve on the new commission and is the front-runner to chair it.
Ms Doyle could not be contacted for comment yesterday and has not expressed a view on the planned new commission, which has been expected for several months. The new body will have a broader scope than her current office as well as greater power to enforce decisions.
A new Communications (Regulation) Bill will establish the commission and make it more accountable to the Oireachtas than the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation. This is required by law to explain its activities each year in a report for the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, and the Oireachtas and to have its accounts audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The Bill will oblige the commission to provide a review of the performance of its functions to an Oireachtas committee, probably the Committee on Public Enterprise, to attend meetings with the committee when requested and to "have regard" to the committee's recommendations. Ms Doyle already attends a number of Oireachtas committee meetings each year.
Ms O'Rourke announced her intention to increase the number of regulators from one to three in May, after a discussion document on the subject recommended such a move. She said the level of change in the telecommunications sector meant too much responsibility was placed on one person's shoulders.
Ms O'Rourke has indicated she also favours the three-member model for the electricity and aviation regulatory bodies.
The new commission will regulate the major changes that will come with "unbundling the local loop", the process by which other telecoms operators will get access to Eircom's local network.
The European Commission has set a deadline of December 2000 for the opening of the local loop to full competition. This move will allow for greater competition in the provision of high-speed data, Internet and broadband services as well as voice telephony to customers.
Ms O'Rourke will bring an aide-memoire to Wednesday's Cabinet meeting outlining her proposals for the new Bill. This will be the last scheduled Cabinet meeting before the end of August.
The Bill will be published in the next few weeks, following which there will be a consultation period of up to eight weeks. The legislation will be introduced by late 2000 or early 2001.
Government sources reject suggestions that the change in the structure of telecommunications regulation implies any criticism of Ms Doyle's record.
There has been a series of legal challenges by telecom operators to Ms Doyle's decisions: however, her office has not lost any of these cases and scored a notable victory in winning a Supreme Court decision rejecting a challenge to the award of the State's third mobile phone licence to the US-Irish consortium Meteor.