Pay-as-you-go mobile phones will have to be registered in future under a Government plan to tackle drug dealers and related crime.
Pay-as-you-go mobile phones can be purchased over the counter with no requirement to register the number with a name or address.
In an interview published today, Minister of State with responsibility for drugs strategy Pat Carey said he believed a requirement to register such phones would help tackle the "rampant use" of mobile phones in prisons, as well as the small-time drug dealers operating in the "shopping centre car park, the church car park or the local football field".
Speaking on RTÉ's News at Onetoday about the move, he said: "We are anxious to have it introduced as soon as it is technically possible to do so."
Mr Carey said that up to now, policy had been to try to reduce the supply of drugs but that it was clear that policy had to keep pace with modern technology and that it needed to be monitored.
"We have seen how valuable the ability to track mobile phone traffic has been in bringing criminals to justice in recent times," he said. The Minister accepted there may be civil liberties concerns with such policies but that he believed the fact lives were also at stake would override those.
Mr Carey said the measure was included in the Fianna Fáil and Green Party Programme for Government.