Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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432. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when a number of Garda stations (details supplied) in County Kerry which the OPW propose to dispose of were decommissioned as active stations. [34958/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I have requested the information sought by the Deputy from An Garda Síochána. I will write to the Deputy as soon as the information is to hand.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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433. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if gardaí have the power to shut down a phone number known to be involved in phishing. [34998/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I can assure the Deputy that the criminal activity known as 'phishing' is taken very seriously by my Department and is the subject of ongoing engagement between An Garda Síochána and the banking and technology industries.

Preliminary data indicates an increase in this form of crime over recent years. I am aware that Gardaí have highlighted scams of late where people have pretended to be from An Garda Síochána, the Department of Social Protection, the Attorney General’s Office, banks, delivery companies, businesses and even in recent weeks, the Department of Justice.

I am informed that work is ongoing in An Garda Síochána to tackle this issue. This includes, but is not limited to the issuing of advisory notices to members of the public warning against this criminal tactic and advising how to proceed should they be targeted.

I am further informed that the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau (GNECB) proactively engages with telecommunications providers to suspend VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) numbers, which are suspected of being used to commit fraud.

I am advised that this engagement does not involve the invoking of any legal power and it is the experience of GNECB that telecommunications companies based in Ireland will provide assistance in the suspension of such numbers, upon notification that a VOIP number or other number is being used to commit fraud offences.

In addition, the use of ‘spoofed numbers’ involves a process wherein a suspected caller/fraudster uses technology to disguise their number from the recipient of the call, by changing their caller ID. In such cases a suspected fraudster calling from abroad, for example, will set the caller ID to look like an Irish number (landline, mobile) to lull the recipient into a false sense of security. Telecommunications companies have informed the GNECB that they have no control over the use of ‘spoofed numbers’ and it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to identify the source of these calls.