Green Party Senator and candidate for Dublin Deirdre de Burca today called for the European Commission to establish a Europe wide ‘Do Not Call’ list, in cooperation with national regulators.

“Irish people need more protection from intrusive and annoying telemarketers. In the United States they have a federally maintained system whereby you call a toll-free number and your number is automatically placed on the Do Not Call register. If a telemarketer calls a number on the register they are fined €1,100.  

“People should be able to eat their dinner in peace and keep salespeople off their phone lines. If we can get this register set up, and the telemarketing industry can pay to maintain it, then we can permanently protect people from those calls.  

“There are some voluntary systems in place. The Telephone Preference Service, set up by the Direct Marketing Association in the UK, was originally formed in 1995 as a voluntary self-regulatory mechanism to enable consumers to opt-out of receiving unsolicited sales and marketing calls. Our banking industry has proven that self regulation gets us nowhere and we need to have a mandatory regulatory system with the rules set out in Europe and common to all European countries.”

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Press Release by Deirdre