Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raise an issue which was brought to my attention regarding low-charge and flat-rate telephone calls, in particular involving numbers with the prefix 076 and 1890. In particular, I highlight the use of those numbers by public bodies and public services. Unfortunately, many of our public bodies' websites include only these numbers for customers to call. The fictitious belief is that they are low-charge or flat-rate numbers, but they are only so when one calls from a landline, not from a mobile. We are in an era now where very few people, in particular in the younger generations, know what a landline is. All of our business is being done via mobile. While the phone numbers in question are referred to as low charge or flat rate, the flat rate is 4 cent per minute, approximately, on average across the different providers. However, if one rings those numbers from a mobile, the average can go up to closer to 40 cent per minute, which is a tenfold increase.

Everyone is aware that when one rings one of these bodies, one will be put on hold and bounced around from option 1 to option 2 or 3. A phone call can easily take ten minutes, which is €4 for people who cannot afford it and who need the services. A few of the services brought to my attention or seen by me in my research only have these numbers on their websites. These include the National Driver Licence Service, PAYE inquiries to Revenue in Westmeath and the Data Protection Commission. Public services and bodies should be obliged to include a landline number because most mobile providers now provide packages where calls to landlines are low-cost anyway. People who need a service should not have to pay up to 40 cent per minute to try to get through to a human being on the other end of the line. This needs to be done and it is remiss of the bodies concerned not to have a landline along with those so-called "low-cost" numbers.