Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 March 2025
20. Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications further to Parliamentary Question No. 216 of 4 March 2025, to detail the potential legislative solutions being considered; the timeframe for their evaluation; and when proposed legislation to address this issue is likely to published. [14593/25]
View answerMy Department has explored and continues to explore multiple approaches to tackling nuisance communications, the unsolicited communications, whether via voice calls or Short Messaging Service (SMS) text messages generally directed at large groups of the population.
It is necessary to explore a myriad of solutions as there is no one panacea for phone or SMS fraud. Instead, we must look to layer multiple protections together to truly mitigate the risks and safeguard consumers.
The majority of solutions explored, including the 6 interventions launched in 2024 by ComReg, are available to execute without the need for any new enabling legislation.
One intervention area that my Department has been considering, in conjunction with ComReg, is content inspection on carrier messaging, often referred to as an 'SMS Filter', akin to an email spam filter. There are a number of ways content inspection on carrier messaging could be applied, most of which can be executed within our existing legislative framework.
One application would see the filter applied to all customer’s contracts by default. My Department is currently assessing the merits of this approach including any necessary legislation that would be required to implement it and the impact it would have on existing protections of end user rights in relation to interception and data protection, as provided in the ePrivacy Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).
My Department's ongoing deliberation includes a weighing of the proportionality of such a response and the impact on consumer's privacy rights; against the scale of the problem and the potential positive benefits of this course of action.
Any solution pursued to tackle nuisance communications, legislative or otherwise, must be considered and weighed carefully against privacy and data protection concerns. I expect that this evaluation process being conducted by my officials will be concluded shortly and until the outcome of this process is known, it is not possible to determine whether legislation will be drafted and when it would likely be published.
My colleague, Minister Donohoe, may also wish to update on the revised Payment Services Directive, which aims to ensure a more secure payments market for consumers by increasing security requirements.
