The State's first industry regulator, Ms Etain Doyle, is looking forward to clearing out her desk at the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) in Dublin early next year.

The 51-year-old history and politics graduate has spent six-and-half years prying open the telecommunications, postal and broadcasting sectors to competition and is now focusing on new challenges.

"I have concentrated almost exclusively on this job - day, night and weekends - and it has been a great privilege to do, but I am conscious that I haven't had any opportunity to pursue any of my personal interests," says Ms Doyle, as she sits in her ComReg office on Lower Abbey Street.

Few industry executives who have locked horns with Ms Doyle since 1997 - the date she was appointed telecoms regulator - can claim to know Ms Doyle on a personal level. And fewer still would guess that the qualified accountant has a penchant for films. But next year Ms Doyle plans to trade her mobile phone for a clapper board.

"I like a wide range of films, although the Matrix Reloaded and films like that are not of particular interest to me. But I would go to a lot of different types of movie such as crime and drama," she says. "Quite a few years ago I did a film course in Canada, which I very much enjoyed."

Ms Doyle will take an eight- week film course in New York when she steps down from ComReg. She will also visit family in the US and relax before seeking consulting jobs and board positions in Ireland.

A career civil servant in the Department of Finance and Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Doyle spent two years working as a consultant with ESBI Consultants prior to becoming director of telecoms. But under the terms of the position as member of ComReg she will not be able to work in the communications sector for a year after she formally steps down.

This will not disappoint some of the big firms in the telecoms sector, which have had a difficult working relationship with Ms Doyle and her office since 1997.

Eircom has accused her office of over-regulating the communications sector and initiated aggressive lobbying campaigns to undermine her office and its key regulatory decisions. In response, Ms Doyle says Eircom hasn't woken up to the benefits of competition, is still dragging its feet, and has no clear vision for the future of the sector.

"Part of the problem is that we are dealing with an incumbent that is not terribly willing to accept competition and regulation," says Ms Doyle, who has fought numerous court cases against the incumbent.

"Compared to the UK market where BT has been subject to regulation for a very long period... Eircom is much slower and each thing has to be taken step by step.

"There is still a feeling at Eircom that regulatory process should all be subject to negotiation and agreement. In one sense that's good, but what it actually means is that the progress of the market is subject to as much of the market as the incumbent is willing to give up."

Major projects - for example, enabling competitors to offer customers line rental and a single bill - have been held up by Eircom dragging its feet, says Ms Doyle.

She also believes the retail and wholesale divisions of Eircom need to be properly separated to promote greater competition.

"While there have been some moves to that effect at Eircom, I am not convinced that these have been sufficient," she says.

She was so concerned at the prospect of Eircom being bought by a group of foreign venture capitalists that she insisted the owners sign letters of guarantee to ensure they continue to invest in its network. Since then Eircom has cut capital spending from more than €400 million a year to €200 million. So is she now concerned?

"We have indicated to them that €200 million per year turns over the network, provides a piece of DSL, but it is not a huge amount of investment."

ComReg is anxious that the Republic's telecoms infrastructure does not fall behind other European states. She is concerned that bringing the company public again could distract management from focusing on the telecoms infrastructure.

"If I was to compare Eircom to KPN or Telia, I just don't see the vision of where it is going in terms of providing a state-of-the-art communications system. Eircom has been slow to take up new products such as DSL and flat-rate internet access."

On a more positive note, Ms Doyle says she is pleased that the firm has finally come around to the idea that rolling out broadband is a good thing. From a slow start, DSL take-up has doubled from 7,000 to more than 14,000 over the past quarter, she says.

Indeed, Eircom's current cut- price special offer to sign up for its broadband service will shortly reach the 10,000 subscriber limit set by the firm. This event should trigger a reduction in the wholesale price that Eircom charges other telecoms operators to sell DSL to customers, she says.

Firms that compete against Eircom have criticised ComReg for being too soft on the incumbent and presiding over a market that has stagnated for two years, with Eircom holding 81 per cent marketshare. They point to the recent High Court settlement between ComReg and Eircom over wholesale rates for DSL.

Ms Doyle blames a combination of the recent economic malaise in the sector and weak penalty powers available to her office for the poor figures.

"In a downturn, smaller companies are more affected than large ones and even the subsidiaries of large firms are affected, because their parents are sticking to the knitting at home," she says.

Inadequate penalty powers have also hampered ComReg's ability to force Eircom to introduce new products or comply with decisions, says Ms Doyle, who admits this has been the most frustrating part of her job.

Strict new penalty powers implemented in the 2002 Communications Act have lapsed and legislation is pending. New measures to penalise Eircom for delays would help ComReg to enforce decisions. A debate around the extension of civil penalty powers to ComReg rather than forcing it to seek criminal indictments is also welcome, says Ms Doyle.

She lists the ubiquity of mobile phones, the issuing of 59 new wireless licences and the transparency of her office as key achievements of her tenure. But she still believes prices here are are among the highest in Europe.

But she does have certain reservations about the future shape of regulation in Ireland, and particularly the impact that new EU regulations will have next year.

"I think the EU framework is highly complex and less certain than is useful for either operators or regulators. I would hope before this ever comes around again people would look at the scale of work that needs to be done."

Come next February, the EU framework and pricing squabbles will be the last thing on her mind.