A County Kildare couple and their children have begun a High Court action to try to stop Eircom publishing sex and chatline numbers in their 01 Dublin area telephone directory. Company Director Patrick O'Connor from Castlewarden in Staffan and his partner Anne Ryan say these numbers are solely and exclusively for the purpose of trading in sex talk and are indecent. This is not, they say, what they contracted for when they got a phone line and telephone book.
It may come as some surprise to many people, senior counsel Peter Finlay told the High Court this morning, that the last two pages of the latest 01 telephone directory contains numbers for chat and sex lines mixed in with numbers for football clubs karaoke and tarot services. He claimed Ireland is the only country apart from Holland that has these numbers in the telephone book. And in the UK these lines are restricted to persons over 18 who are issued with a personal pin number for access.
Mr Finlay said that his clients, Patrick O'Connor and Anne Ryan, are not members of any society or pressure group holding extreme views. They are the parents of young children and do not want these numbers, which they consider obscene, in their telephone book. They have taken their action against Eircom, the Golden Pages, the Censorship of Publications Board, and the State. The court heard the plaintiffs have investigated three numbers in these pages.
