David Norris (Independent)

It does not matter what the Minister of State claimed, it is still nonsense.

The Cathaoirleach obviously ruled the Minister was wrong on this. However, he made another ruling regarding an amendment of mine which I believe was wrong. Given that Senator Ryan's amendment was allowed, I am astonished my amendment was disallowed. I believe that was wrong and I will write to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges on the matter.

This section deals with the use of telephone instruments and machinery for sending offensive messages. It concerns the relationship between the telephone messenger and the receiver and the nature of those calls. That places a whole area as the proper subject of the Bill. My amendment concerned a common practice used by various agencies, including State agencies. When one telephones them, and after they have delayed one for 15 minutes with their music, announcements and menu of choices, one is informed that the call may be recorded for the purposes of training. My amendment proposed to remove that right. It could not be more directly germane to this section. It is exactly in the same area as Senator Ryan's amendment. I am astonished it was ruled that it was outside the scope of the Bill. I am here to protest about the ruling out of order of my amendment and to ask the Minister of State to examine this. Communications on the part of an individual citizen should not be subject to violation in the commercial interests of companies. This is a principle the Minister of State should sustain. Although I have been improperly denied the opportunity to place this amendment before the House, I ask the Minister of State to reply to this.