Team size: 15

How has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities?

ESG issues are becoming important to long-term business success. They have increasingly been the subject of legislative requirements noting for example the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. As part of this, the role of general counsel is also fast evolving in response to increased stakeholder focus on sustainability risks and opportunities and calls for greater consideration of ESG factors in decision making. The legal team and I as the GC are central to managing the legal risks inherent in the evolving and dynamic ESG landscape. We include attention to relationships between public bodies, government, industry, and consumers now that stakeholders are better equipped to drive home legal responsibility. ComReg prioritises the sustainable development of digital society that enhances socio-economic progress and to support this, we are keen to develop the ESG platform in our organisation. The electronic communications sector can play an important role in creating a more sustainable economy. The carbon footprint of the sector is also changing as new networks get deployed. ESG and sustainability issues are important to me and as a lawyer, I have a strong sense of justice and I believe companies can make a difference.

What are the most significant cases and/or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Throughout the pandemic we have played a key role in fostering resilience of the electronic communications sector, supporting our essential services, and enabling society to stay connected in new ways including involvement in various regulatory interventions necessitated by the pandemic. Our team handled legal challenges that arose from key regulatory decisions in the areas of spectrum awards, universal service funding, regulatory governance, and wholesale access. In addition, we developed spectrum licenses which enabled the deployment of Smart Grids. We have continued to successfully enforce consumer rights in a range of court actions against electronic communications service providers where they fail to uphold consumer rights, particularly in respect of billing and switching. Finally, we conducted fundamental reviews of the way a range of wholesale markets are regulated.

In what ways do you see the in-house legal role evolving in your region over the next few years?

In line with rapidly increasing technological and business developments in the relevant markets the legal team’s role is central to the implementation of the updated regulatory framework for the regulation of electronic communications, the European Electronic Communications Code. The Code is one of the pillars of the EU Digital Single Market initiative and our vision is of a sector where consumers and businesses in Ireland have affordable, high-quality, and widespread access to secure electronic communications.

The legal team shares the challenge of ensuring ComReg contributes to the development of digital society and delivery of the economic and societal goals enabled by continuing developments in the electronic communications sector. As markets become more competitive and our regulatory interventions decrease, we need to prepare for greater use of our competition powers. Finally, there should be development of evolving regulatory enforcement powers to meet the increased need for efficiency and effectiveness to protect competition in the marketplace and to champion consumers interests and needs.