Ardagh apologises for phone messages

Dublin South Central TD Mr Seán Ardagh has not ruled out using pre-recorded phone messages to contact constituents again.

The Fianna Fáil deputy apologised to angry ex-directory householders who were telephoned with a pre-recorded message asking them to vote for him.

He said he received some 80 complaints from ex-directory householders, about how he had the use of their numbers.

But he insisted that he did not have access to ex-directory numbers. It was a computer-generated system of "sequentially phoned numbers".

Voters received the calls on Thursday, the eve of the election. The TD could not say how many people were called but it was "over 1,000". This system of recorded telephone calls is used regularly in the US.

Eircom was inundated with calls from ex-directory householders and in a statement, the phone company made it clear that it did not give out any ex-directory numbers.

Mr Ardagh, the chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, apologised to everybody who was offended and particularly to householders whose phones were ex-directory.

He did not rule out using the system again but said that before doing so "it would have to be on the basis of trying to eliminate ex- directory people". He said he had received a positive response to the calls from a lot of people.

The Progressive Democrats also used a similar system to send a recorded message in a number of constituencies.