Justice calls on the regulator

Who'd be a telecoms regulator? The week has been one long nightmare for the forthright director of the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation, Etain Doyle, with High Court judge Ms Justice Macken issuing a scathing report on shortcomings in the tender process and certain industry officials, who have felt the brunt of her public utterances in the past, quietly enjoying the discomfiture of her office.

While the bulk of attention has gone to allegations of bias in the tendering process relating to alterations in scores for each of the parties on certain indicators, the very fact that there is no paper trail as to what happened is, if anything, even more notable.

How can a regulator - introduced to ensure fairness and openness in the liberalisation of telecoms and the arrival of competition in the sector - defend itself when there are no notes of crucial meetings and decisions?

Even more disturbing is the view of the judge that certain important documents had been shredded "or in some other way disposed of".

Whatever the outcome of this particular fiasco, the Minister will have to look again at the operation and terms of reference of this and other regulators.