THUMBS DOWN:Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar has described as "a hidden rip-off" the continued use of lo-call numbers by Government departments.

A Fine Gael survey of 21 Government departments and agencies found they all had lo-call numbers but few alerted callers to the cost of calling 1890 numbers with mobiles. Calling from a landline costs less than five cent per minute, but calling from a mobile can cost more than six times that amount.