Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 361: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he has received indications of DSL failure rate here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7074/06]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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I refer the Deputy to my reply to Question No. 73 on 10 March 2005.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 362: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the actions he can take to counter the problem regarding increased use of mobile telephone systems for child pornography; if his attention has been drawn to the potential damage to society to such abuses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7075/06]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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Legislation to combat illegal pornographic material is already in place.

It is an offence under the section 13 of the Post Office (Amendment) Act 1951, as amended by the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983, to send by phone any message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character. It is also 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. My colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, is responsible for policy on the protection of children from the transmission of pornographic images by phones and other media. Anyone who has information on these matters should bring it immediately to the attention of the Garda Síochána for criminal investigation.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 363: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if at national or international level he has taken steps to combat spam on the Internet; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7077/06]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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Due to concerns raised by member states on the sending of unsolicited e-mails for direct marketing purposes via the Internet, mobile phones and other electronic communications media, the EU introduced Directive 2002/58/EC, Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications. This directive was transposed into national law in November 2003 via the Data Protection and Privacy Regulations 2003, SI No. 535 of 2003. The regulations place restrictions on the sending of unsolicited e-mails for direct marketing purposes via the Internet, mobile phones and other electronic communications media.

Responsibility for the enforcement of the regulations rests with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. A person found guilty of a breach of the regulations is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €3,000 per message.

Spam is a global problem and the capacity of an individual member state to control it in isolation is very limited because spam can originate outside the member state's jurisdiction. The EU and the OECD have set up working groups to explore the options for controlling spam in the wider global context. The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner are represented on the aforementioned groups. Both groups are co-operating with each other towards the development of measures, such as the adoption of the aforementioned directive by all EU member states; international co-operation in investigation and enforcement; education and awareness among consumers on prevention and the technical and legal solutions available to them to control spam; self-regulation among service providers, such as a code of practice; and the development of technical solutions by service providers such as blocking and filtering that will keep false positives, the blocking of legitimate e-mails, to a minimum.