MINISTER FOR Communications Eamon Ryan has rejected appeals not to establish a separate regulator for telecommunications, as the Opposition claimed it would result in “bloated” rather than “lean” government.

Mr Ryan said that “while I can appreciate the argument and understand some of the thinking behind it, at this stage it is not the correct or appropriate step to take”. The new authority is expected to cost “closer to €7 million than to €10 million” and the cost this year to broadcasters “will depend on when the agency is established”.

During report stage of the Broadcasting Bill in the Dáil yesterday, Labour spokeswoman Liz McManus said the structures proposed in the Bill for a separate regulator rather than a single regulator for both broadcasting and telecommunications would “put an unnecessary financial burden on broadcasters at a time when they must cope with major cutbacks due to plummeting advertising revenues”. She said that, whatever structures were put in place, they should not be “cumbersome, inefficient and expensive”.

“If we proceed with the structure that is proposed in this Bill to set up a broadcasting authority, that is exactly what we will get. At a time when we need lean government we will get bloated government in the area of broadcasting.”

Ms McManus cited Ofcom, the UK’s converged regulator for broadcasting and telecommunications, which had 5 per cent lower costs than the combined budget of its separate predecessors.

She said there were many instances in which the functions of ComReg, which regulates telecommunications, overlapped with broadcasting regulation functions. The Minister “appears to be blind to the necessity to think again in terms of today’s needs”, she said.

Fine Gael spokesman Simon Coveney agreed and said the Minister’s proposal “does not seem consistent with what many other countries across Europe are doing, with the best example being our closest neighbour”.

Highlighting the recruitment embargo and exchequer difficulties, Mr Coveney said: “We now are in a different world and to carry on blithely as though another body simply could be created has a touch of empire-building about it.”

Mr Ryan said the costs for the new agency were “closer to €7 million than to €10 million”. He said he had come to the conclusion that it was “not best for us at present to establish a single regulatory system”. There were “real concerns with respect to such a move and there is a possibility the broadcasting sector could be swamped”.

The Minister said he would not be able to provide massive additional resources. The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland had approximately 36 full-time jobs and “they will be obliged to take on additional roles and seek efficiencies in their systems to be able to do this within existing resources”.

Mr Ryan added that “we do not envisage a great new bureaucratic structure. Such are the constraints and difficulties at present that the proposed new regulatory system will not have substantial additional resources”, and it must be a “very efficient, tight service”.