Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I welcome the support of Senators for Second Stage of this Bill.

I shall deal with a couple of points. Senator O'Reilly said something that bears repeating about the good work the existing agency, Regtel, has been doing. We acknowledge this, while recognising the lack of statutory powers which hindered Regtel from doing the work necessary, especially in an evolving area, thus requiring us to make the changes that have to be made. However, it is important to recognise the work that has been done by the existing agency while acknowledging the limitations in its statutory remit which have required us to change the circumstances.

I also thank Senator Brady for his reporting of his experiences in front of his television set at 2 o'clock in the morning, giving us good examples of some of the scams that can take place. Senator Quinn is right about caveat emptor, but there are occasions when, say, at 2 o'clock in the morning, it is difficult to be absolutely awake and razor sharp and people can be taken in by inappropriate marketing practices. It is appropriate that we are now legislating to change such practices.

Given Senator Quinn's record of attention to customer service, I take on board with extra attention what he has said. The question he asks about how mobile services are developing is interesting. In the first example he mentioned the prospect of a person walking down a street and, through Bluetooth technology in all likelihood, getting access to information about the restaurants or shops in the street. Somebody told me the other day that an application available from iTunes does precisely that. It can tell one not just that there is a restaurant in the neighbourhood but that there is a table free and one might get a 10% discount if one says one has used the mobile advertising network to access information and using words to the effect that the steak is particularly good tonight or whatever. That level of detail is now available on mobile phones. They are becoming the access network to------