John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

It is not proposed to accept this amendment. The purpose of amending the Post Office (Amendment) Act 1951 was to increase fines to deter nuisance calls to the emergency call answering service, ECAS. The change proposed by the Senators is a wider offence and I understand from the debate on Tuesday that they are particularly concerned about tackling cyber bullying. The issues were raised again today by the Senators. This type of regulation falls outside the remit of the Bill. The sole intention of this provision is to address nuisance calls to the emergency services. I have listened carefully as did the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, to the points raised by the Senators. The purpose of the Bill is to deal with the regulation of a service. The areas raised by the Senators would be more appropriate to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

To respond to Senator Terry, it is an offence under section 10 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997 to harass a person by use of any means, including by use of a telephone. Therefore, the issue is already dealt with to a certain extent.