Mr. Kevin O'Brien:

I thank the Deputy for his questions, the first of which was related to what we call the premium rate services sector. I will provide a brief explanation of the history. Premium rate services involve buying and paying for a service through one's telephone bill. The costs appear on the bill, whether it is for a mobile or fixed telephone. For many years this service was regulated by an industry funded group called Regtel. Following on from the 2010 legislation the duty was given to ComReg to regulate this area. The Act is specific in terms of ComReg's duties and how a premium rate service is defined. We have no scope to escape from the definitions set out in the Act. Following the enactment of the legislation, ComReg sought to put in place a code of practice to protect consumers. ComReg has approximately 33,000 consumer contacts per year. By contact I mean an issue a consumer brings to our attention. Of these, approximately 21,000 or 22,000 relate to communications services, while more than 10,000 relate to premium rate services. It has been an area in which there has been significant confusion and upset has been caused to consumers, in particular in cases in which consumers believed they had not subscribed to a service but in which they had found that amounts of money were being added to their telephone bill.

ComReg introduced a code of practice in this area and several providers of premium rate services took legal proceedings against it because of the premium rate service regime. The cases were taken not only against ComReg but also against the State, the Minister, the Government and the Attorney General. I am pleased to report that these proceedings have come to a conclusion and a code of practice is being fully applied. We have taken several compliance actions against premium rate providers in cases in which, in effect, consumers were not being treated appropriately under the code.

The Deputy mentioned a specific issue affecting charities. ComReg must examine each premium rate service on its merits. We will apply the legislation and the code in the normal way with regard to the issues mentioned by the Deputy. That is the general approach we must take. Regardless of who is advertising, whether it be a business or a charity, it is important that the consumer who is the subject of the advertisements receive correct information and that the advertisements not be in any way incorrect. I have no wish to comment on a specific case, but we have this code of practice on which we publicly consulted and we apply it to everyone equally and fairly.

The Deputy asked whether we could monitor the volume of premium rate service texts. Our quarterly report publishes the total number of texts sent in Ireland. It is a vast number, approximately 3 billion per quarter - I believe we are the most active texters in Europe. We do not have information on the number of texts sent to premium rate service providers, as that is their business and so on. However, we monitor the adherence of premium rate service providers to the code of practice.

I understand Project Kelvin has been delivered by the Government working jointly with the Government in Northern Ireland with EU funding support.

I absolutely agree that these types of international broadband connectivity are vital. The first big one in Ireland was the global crossing network, about ten or 11 years ago. It is vital that the country has these connections. The next big question is whether other areas in the country connect back. Do they have backhaul to the point of international connection? A key issue for an area like Donegal would be whether other operators, such as BT, Eircom or ESB are connecting back to Project Kelvin and bringing that connectivity into the area. I do not have specific information about where Project Kelvin goes. It was a matter for the two governments and not for ComReg.

Deputy McHugh mentioned issues regarding certain parts of Donegal. If we talk afterwards, we can get that detail from the Deputy and follow up with operators to see what the specific issues are.