I raise an issue which was brought to my attention regarding low-charge and flat-rate telephone calls, in particular involving numbers with the prefix 076 and 1890. In particular, I highlight the use of those numbers by public bodies and public services. Unfortunately, many public bodies' websites include only these numbers for customers to call. The fictitious belief is they are low-charge or flat-rate numbers, but they are only so when one calls from a landline, not from a mobile. We are in an era now where very few people, in particular in the younger generations, know what a landline is. All of our business is being done via mobile. While the phone numbers in question are referred to as low charge or flat rate, the flat rate is 4 cent per minute, approximately, on average across the different providers. However, if one rings those numbers from a mobile, the average can go up to closer to 40 cent per minute, which is a tenfold increase.

Everyone is aware that when one rings one of these bodies, one will be put on hold and bounced around from option 1 to option 2 or 3. A phone call can easily take ten minutes, which is €4 for people who cannot afford it and who need the services. A few of the services brought to my attention or seen by me in my research only have these numbers on their websites. These include the National Driver Licence Service, PAYE inquiries to Revenue in Westmeath and the Data Protection Commission. Public services and bodies should be obliged to include a landline number because most mobile providers now provide packages where calls to landlines are low-cost anyway. People who need a service should not have to pay up to 40 cent per minute to try to get through to a human being on the other end of the line. This needs to be done and it is remiss of the bodies concerned not to have a landline along with those so-called "low-cost" numbers.

Brexit is looming very large and we are coming to the end game. Brexit is bad news for the island of Ireland, the UK and the EU. I was at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool for the last two days and was encouraged to see the party coming out with some sort of position. Yesterday, the party stated it would look at a referendum option where no final deal emerges from Parliament. That has to be welcomed by this House. It would absolutely block a no-deal Brexit. I do not know what happened in the past few years, but people are beginning to come out and stand up. I noticed yesterday that 95% of the people at the conference wanted to remain in the EU and felt that Brexit was wrong. I applaud the Labour Party for standing up. I see that Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, is due to meet the EU chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, in the next few days, which is also very welcome.

I pay tribute to a friend of mine who is also a very good friend of Ireland, namely, Mr. Stephen Pound, MP for Ealing North and the Labour Party's shadow Minister for Northern Ireland. He was on Twitter and Facebook where he said this was a matter of life or death for the people of Northern Ireland. He knows and cares about it. There are enough people at Westminster from an Irish diaspora background who actually care about us and who are beginning to stand up. We must work together now to ensure Brexit does not happen. It is bad for the Good Friday Agreement and it is bad for the island of Ireland. It is catastrophic for the so-called United Kingdom and the EU.

There is quite a large amount of vacant property. We must take action to bring these properties into use and, if necessary, use the taxation system in the upcoming budget and make it difficult for people to leave property vacant. I am a little concerned that while it complains night and day about the issue of housing, Sinn Féin proposed to one local authority in Cork that property tax be reduced by 15%. The latter would give rise to a reduction in income of €1.69 million. Property tax generates funding and it is a disincentive to leaving properties vacant. If property tax is reduced, that encourages people to leave properties vacant. I am somewhat surprised that, on the one hand, Sinn Féin wants more action taken in respect of housing but, on the other - by means of taxation reductions - it would encourage owners to leave properties vacant for longer periods. The party needs to clarify this. It is unfortunate that when there has been a real increase in income in this country, it is talking about reducing property tax when in real terms it is beneficial to local councils and the services they provide. If €1.69 million is coming out of the income, that affects the provision of services. The party might keep that in mind on the next occasion when its members at local authority level start proposing decreases in property tax.