Mr John Doherty and Ms Isolde Goggin, the two standing commissioners of ComReg, have not yet signed off on their civil service work contracts more than a year after taking up their positions. The two were appointed by the Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern, to the 121,000-per-year positions with ComReg in November 2002.

But a spokesman for his Department confirmed last night that the contracts had yet to be finalised and signed off by both parties. "There isn't any difficulty with the contracts and they should be signed in the near future," added the spokesman.

The delay follows on from a separate dispute between ComReg's former chairman, Ms Etain Doyle, and the Department. Ms Doyle and the Department became embroiled in a dispute over pension entitlements in 2002 and 2003. She stepped down from ComReg last month.