Telecoms appeals board to be set up

The Government will set up an appeals board for the communications sector by autumn in an effort to prevent costly legal challenges to regulatory decisions.

The board will consist of distinguished individuals from the public and private sector and will be empowered to overrule decisions made by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg). The move will disappoint ComReg, which argued strongly against such a move.

The plan is being drawn up by the Department for Communications, which is proposing to extend the model to others sectors including the Commission for Energy Regulation.

A spokesman for the Minister for Communications said yesterday that the Government was anxious to put the appeals process in place as quickly as possible.

"The minister believes that the telecoms appeals process may serve as a template for the other regulatory bodies and other appeals mechanisms coming on stream," the spokesman said. "One appeals panel across all of the regulatory bodies will save on costs and also provide for consistency in decision-making. He will liaise with the relevant Cabinet colleagues regarding its introduction."

Currently, operators who disagree with a decision made by ComReg can appeal to the High Court. But this process can take years and has severely delayed some crucial decisions, including the award of the third mobile phone licence in 1998 to Meteor.

Under the new system, operators can choose to either appeal to the new panel or go directly to court. It is expected that many operators will use the appeals board because it is a quicker and cheaper way to achieve a result.

Any operator that chooses to go the appeals board route and loses an appeal may be precluded from lodging a full appeal to the courts. Instead, they may only be able to seek judicial review under new legislation being prepared.

The decision by the Minister for Communications, Mr Ahern, to set up an appeals board will disappoint ComReg.

When Mr Ahern first flagged the policy of introducing an appeals mechanism earlier this year, ComReg vigorously opposed the plan.

In a public response to the Department of Communications plan, ComReg said an appeals board would create legal uncertainty, and risk overlap and contradiction between the board and decisions by the High Court.

The establishment of an appeals board would result in a number of major problems, concluded the ComReg paper.

"Most importantly, it would allow operators to have two opportunities to challenge a decision," it added.

The decision by Mr Ahern to raise the issue of extending the appeals panel model across Government with his Cabinet colleagues could have important consequences for regulation.

Critics of the proposal believe it may undermine the political independence of national regulators depending on which individuals are appointed to the boards.

The Department plans to appoint a panel of distinguished individuals from industry, academia and economics.

Proponents of the appeals panel scheme believe it could prevent costly legal battles, which end up costing the State millions.

Court challenges taken by the semi-state firm Aer Rianta against the authority of the aviation regulator have already cost the public millions of euro.