Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 January 2026
186. Deputy David Maxwell asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport if he will introduce legislation to provide for SMS scam filters to be deployed in Ireland, similar to those permitted in other EU jurisdictions, in response to the ongoing proliferation of fake SMS messages. [74098/25]
View answerMy 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, the unsolicited communications, whether via voice calls or Short Messaging Service (SMS) text messages generally directed at large groups of the population.
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 2024, 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 present 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 currently label unregistered Sender IDs as 'Likely Scam'.
Voice-firewall: A dynamic approach to blocking scam calls that can be updated in real-time to better account for the adapting strategies of fraudsters.
Telecommunications operators have implemented these interventions in phases over recent years. As of November 2025, the majority are in place. A recent report by ComReg (September 2025) shows that over 100 million scam calls have been successfully blocked due to these measures, with over 13 million scam calls blocked in July 2025 alone. These are calls that otherwise would have been received by consumers bringing with them concern, worry and the danger of significant financial loss.
It is necessary to explore a range 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. A further area of intervention that my Department has been examining is a proposal relating to an SMS scam filter that functions like email spam filters to help reduce scam messages. Any solutions to tackle nuisance communications must be considered and weighed carefully against privacy and data protection concerns.
My Department will continue to examine the options available, the proportionality of any proposed interventions and the collective responsibility to be taken by the State, industry, and customers to protect ourselves, and especially those most vulnerable in our society, from nefarious actors.
