asked the Minister for Communications whether he is aware of an incident that occurred in Templemore, County Tipperary (details supplied) where an unauthorised trespasser used a company's telephone to make nearly £500 worth of telephone calls to the United States of America, subsequently admitted doing so to the Garda and they were unable to take a prosecution against the person concerned as no criminal offence had been disclosed; if he will make a statement on the matter; and if he considers it desirable that the law be changed.

Section 99 of the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act, 1983, which came into effect on 1 January 1984 is intended to cover cases of attempts by fraud to avoid the payment of charges properly due for telecommunications services and section 4 of the Act provides for substantial penalties. Whether these provisions cover cases similar to that described by the Deputy is, however, a question for the courts to determine.

Does the Minister believe that section 99 of the Act referred to will cover this? It seems that it was designed to cover a different situation.

My advice is that this section was put into the Act to cover cases of this kind.