Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 159: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources in view of the introduction of a national pay by weight charge if there are plans to introduce measures which would allow homeowners to block unsolicited postal mail. [6125/05]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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An Post is statutorily obliged under section 12 of the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983 to satisfy all reasonable demands for postal services throughout the State.

The public receives a wide variety of mail from a number of sources, much of which could be regarded as unsolicited mail, including unaddressed mail material, which may be delivered by operators besides An Post. An Post itself provides two services called Postaim and Publicity Post which allow businesses to address correspondence about their products and services directly to individuals or, alternatively, to have unaddressed publicity brochures, etc., delivered to houses in a particular area.

Under section 2(7) of the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003, individuals have the right to request that they be removed from any direct mailing lists used by businesses. Householders also have the option of limiting the amount of unsolicited mail they receive by completing a mailing preference service form requesting that their names be removed from mailing lists controlled by members of the Irish Direct Marketing Association. The form, available from post offices, goes directly to the Irish Direct Marketing Association and only applies to addressed mail sent by their members. It has no bearing on mail from any other source or unaddressed mail.