Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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148. To ask the Minister for Finance the positions in his Department and the organisations under its aegis that have arrangements in place for lo-call numbers or 1800, 1850 and 1890 telephone numbers for members of the public to contact his Department or organisations under its aegis; the number of these that are completely free to call for persons who use mobile telephones and may incur major bills telephoning such organisations; if the situation will be reviewed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36399/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In response to the Deputy, I can confirm that an 1890 lo-call phone number, in addition to a landline phone number, is available for members of the public to contact my Department. These numbers are available on the www.finance.gov.ie website.

The 1890 number provided will incur a cost to persons calling my Department using a mobile phone, the cost of which is dependent and determined by the mobile operator used.A review is underway to examine ways of reducing costs incurred by members of the public when contacting my Department, with consideration given to possible alternatives to the 1890 service.

I am informed that 13 of the 17 bodies under the aegis of my Department do not have arrangements in place for lo-call numbers or 1800, 1850 and 1890 phone numbers for members of the public to contact them. A number of these 13 bodies are not public facing, and as such, do not in general have dealings with the public. They include the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation which is in liquidation, the Credit Union Advisory Committee which is a committee that advises the Minister for Finance on credit Union matters and meets regularly in my Department’s offices, the Credit Union Restructuring Board which has completed its remit and is awaiting legislation to wind-down, and the Social Finance Foundation which is a wholesale lender of social finance. The remaining 9 bodies are the Disabled Drivers Medical Board of Appeal, the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, the Investor Compensation Company DAC, the Irish Financial Services Appeals Tribunal, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, the National Asset Management Agency, the National Treasury Management Agency and the Tax Appeals Commission. These Bodies have indicated that they currently have no plans to review these arrangements.

Four of the bodies under my Department’s aegis have arrangements in place for lo-call numbers or 1800, 1850 and 1890 phone numbers. They are the Central Bank of Ireland, the Credit Review Office, the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland and Office of the Revenue Commissioners.

The Central Bank of Ireland has 1890 phone numbers in place for members of the public for general enquiries, queries on online regulatory returns by firms, the making of protected disclosures and to purchase collector coins. The Central Bank indicates that the charge attached to calling their 1890 numbers is dependent on the mobile phone provider, specifically in the case of those using pre-pay bundles. In order to offer callers a choice, it also has Dublin landline numbers for each of these purposes. It intends to continue to provide a choice of numbers.

The Credit Review Office has an 1850 flat rate number in place that operates at a maximum cost (of 31c) per call. They have no plans to review this at present.

The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland has an 1800 Freephone number which is a helpline for the Brexit Loan Scheme.

As well as twenty eight 1890 numbers in place, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners has an 1800 Freephone number for the reporting of drug and tobacco smuggling. It has been actively seeking ways to reduce the telephone cost burden for customers, including exploring alternatives to the 1890 service. This included evaluating new telephony technology which could provide a robust, reliable and scalable telephone service (Revenue received approx. 2.5m calls per year) without relying on 1890 architecture. Revenue is now in a position to begin rolling out new technology for its telephone service by the end of 2018/early 2019 using ‘Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)’ based telephony. This will allow a move away from using the 1890 infrastructure to standard landline numbers for all its services.