Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
405. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if his attention has been drawn to correspondence from a person (details supplied); his plans to review the use of 1890 phone numbers across all Departments, in view of the fact that these lines may incur higher call charges from mobile phones; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33038/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Deputy will be aware that 1890 numbers were introduced with the intention of reducing call costs for members of the public to public bodies and were implemented by a large number of such bodies. At the time of their introduction, people primarily used landlines to contact public bodies and these calls were charged at local rates.
While the 1890 service was introduced as a low cost service for members of the public contacting public bodies at a time when people largely used landlines for that purpose, mobile phone usage has of course become more prevalent and the 1890 number is not treated as a low cost service or as part of ‘bundled minute packages’ by many mobile operators.
The question of rates charged by telecoms operators for telephone services, to include 1890 numbers, is a matter for the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg). ComReg launched a public consultation on “Non-Geographic Numbers” (NGN) ‘1800’, ‘1850’, ‘1890’, ‘0818’ and ‘076’ on 16 August, 2017. The draft findings from this consultation were published in July 2018 and are available at https://www.comreg.ie/industry/licensing/numbering/ngn-review/. ComReg notes that significant numbers of consumers are deterred from calling NGNs or are reluctant to use them. They acknowledge that this impacts consumers generally and those who may be financially and / or socially vulnerable in particular. ComReg have suggested two measures to address this issue:
1. introduce a new ‘Geo-Linked’ retail tariff measure for the 1850, 1890, 0818 and 076 NGNs; and
2. reduce the number of NGN types from five (1800, 1850, 1890, 0818 and 076) to two (1800 and 0818).
I understand that ComReg have invited further engagement from all interested parties on this issue, running until 22 August, 2018.
