Madam, - The proposed register for pay-as-you-go mobile phones is a waste of time. There are (at least) two gaping holes in the proposal: First, the element that ties a user to a non-prepaid mobile phone is not the registered owner, but his or her bank details, which fund the phone. I can voluntarily pass on my phone to whomever I wish, if I am prepared to pay for it. Meanwhile, any pay-as-you-go phone can be passed from one person to another without having to change the register. In fact, I regularly use a phone and SIM card registered to my father, simply because it fits the phone connection in my car. Isn't it a little flawed to assume that he can be tracked by my movements?
Second, and more importantly, the rationale behind this idea is that it would be more difficult to use prepaid phones for criminal purposes. Do the powers-that-be think that a fellow who can smuggle thousands of euro worth of drugs past customs, or oversee a gang of pushers, will be incapable of getting his hands on an untraceable phone? Any fool can buy a phone handset or SIM on an internet auction site.
Surely the answer is not to control the purchase of phones, but to increase the enforcement of laws against organised crime. If a man has a cellphone in prison, the problem is not with the registration of the phone but with the control systems in our prisons. After all, in the case of the recent Joe Duffy incident, was ownership of the phone really the crucial issue? Wasn't it, rather, the fact that prison controls were so lax as to allow phones and budgies into prisons? These are but two issues that seem apparent to me, and I'm no expert. This whole thing smacks of: "Yes, Minister, we must do something. This is something. Therefore we must do this."
I agree that drugs-based, organised crime is out of control and must be curbed. Indeed, the problem is so serious that we need real initiatives from the Government rather than half-brained "phone control". If we're finally going to do something, let it be something that might actually make a difference. - Yours, etc,
SINEAD McENEANEY, Oakleigh, Celbridge, Co Kildare.