James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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1358. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he has considered the Commission for Communications Regulation “Know Your Customer (KYC) Guidance Document - draft”, and to confirm whether any legislative action would be necessary to address the matters cited (details supplied); if he intends to take any; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42560/25]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to tackling scam calls and texts across electronic communications networks and services. Both my Department and the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), the statutorily independent regulator under the aegis of my Department, continue to explore and evaluate interventions to protect consumers from nuisance communications. Whilst I am not currently considering legislative action in relation to the matter raised by the Deputy, there are actions ongoing to reduce nuisance communications.

ComReg established an industry action group to address the growing menace of scam calls and texts, the Nuisance Communication Industry Forum (NCIF). This cross-industry body builds on the work of the previous Nuisance Communications Industry Taskforce (NCIT), established in February 2022.

In April of 2024, having been informed by the submissions to its consultation in June 2023 and by the work of the NCIT, ComReg mandated six interventions. The interventions focus on restoring trust in Ireland’s telecommunications services by identifying and deploying interventions to decrease the prevalence and damaging effects of nuisance communications. These include:

• Do Not Originate (DNO) list: a list of numbers that will be blocked for call origination.
• Protected Numbers (PN): The blocking of numbers that have not been assigned by ComReg.
• Fixed – Calling Line Identification (CLI) Call Blocking: Identifies and blocks scam calls originating from international networks but presenting as an Irish landline caller.
• Mobile CLI Call Blocking: Identifies and blocks scam calls originating from international networks presenting as an Irish mobile caller.
• SMS Sender ID Registry: Allows businesses to register their Sender ID. Operators would then block any SMS message bearing a Sender ID from an unregistered source.
• Voice-firewall: Software that identifies and blocks scam calls from Ireland or abroad and will help protect against future more sophisticated scams.