The Government is likely to renege on a commitment to establish a national register of owners for next generation mobile phones before the launch next month.
The register was proposed by the previous minister for communications, Mr Dermot Ahern, as a way to protect children from pornography and offensive material accessible on the internet.
However, The Irish Times has learned that the Government is rethinking the policy following strong lobbying by the mobile phone industry.
Vodafone, which will be the first firm to launch new 3G handsets, has told the Government it believes the cost of setting up and administering a registration system would be enormous. It has also argued that it is not practical in the Republic, where there are no national identity cards.
Currently anyone can buy a pre-paid mobile without having to register their name, age and address with a service provider such as Vodafone or O2. This has led to fears that children will be able to access pornographic material on the web, send indecent images to other mobile users and participate in online chats rooms.
These fears led Mr Ahern to announce in June that the Government would introduce a national register for 3G phones later this year. "To protect Irish children, I think we need to go beyond the present degree of protection," Mr Ahern said in a press release issued at the launch of a parental guide, Children and Mobile Phones.
"We need a national register of 3G phones. We must aim to have the register in place in advance of the commercial roll-out of 3G."
However, a spokeswoman for the new Minister for Communications, Mr Dempsey, confirmed the Department was now considering technical proposals from the industry, which may remove the need for a register.
Vodafone would initially launch contract handsets rather than pre-paid phones so there was no issue yet, she said.
Vodafone would not confirm this yesterday, but a company spokeswoman said the Government was not going to order a national register of 3G handsets before its launch.
"We believe the initiative will only serve to demonise 3G and put obstacles in the way of people accessing the latest in wireless technology," she said. "Any such mandating of 3G registration would require legislation and the Department has not indicated any timelines to us."
Earlier this week, a report commissioned by the Internet Advisory Board found that few parents were aware that children could access the web from mobiles.