Ring bats for constituents bombarded with late-night sex calls

Anton McNulty

Michael Ring is taking action on behalf of constituents ‘inundated’ with calls from Irish people dialing sex hotlines in the UK but failing to include the international dial code.
The Minister of State for Regional Economic Development has called on the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) and the Commission of Communications Regulation (Comreg) to intervene and force the operators of the adult phone services to change the numbers, which are similar to Westport landlines.
The Westport-based TD was contacted by angry constituents being bombarded with late-night callers to the services.
The premium-rate hotlines were advertised on cable television stations, and their telephone numbers often start with 098, the prefix for the west Mayo region.
Many of the calls were to elderly people in the middle of the night, and Minister Ring is angry that is being allowed to continue.
“They are getting these calls in the middle of night. One of those people has an elderly mother and family members all over the world, and there could be a call at any time that they would have to take,” Mr Ring told the Sunday Independent.
In a similar, though less potentially offensive mix-up, many Westport residents have been contacted by people thinking they were calling Sky TV helplines, which also have similar numbers to landlines in west Mayo.
Gardaí in Westport have been asked to look into the sex-line issue, and Minister Ring has called on the BAI and Comreg to intervene.
BAI chief executive Michael O’Keeffe wrote directly to the minister about one of the constituents affected. “It is unfortunate that this issue is still continuing. However, the BAI is not in a position to address the problem, as it is not within our remit and he was advised at all times we were assisting him as a matter of courtesy,” he said.
Mr Ring said he has not received a satisfactory response from Comreg as of yet.