Authorities in Leinster House are to investigate whether mobile phone signals can be blocked in the Dáil chamber.

It's after the Ceann Comhairle said the regular use of phones by TDs was "profoundly sad".

In an interview with the Irish Independent, Sean Ó Fearghaíl said it was sad that TDs were "so addicted to their mobile phones that they cannot leave them outside".

In theory the use of ordinary mobile phones has been banned inside the Dáil and Seanad since the late 1990s.

However the ban is now barely enforced - and mobile phones are so common that the sound system was upgraded last summer, partly so that the sound of phone interference can no longer be heard.

The ban has become even more widely flouted since every member of the Oireachtas has been supplied with an iPad, which are regularly used in the chamber - with a iFi network also installed in the Dáil chamber to allow their use.

Independent TD for Tipperary. Mattie McGrath, thinks an outright block on using phones is too harsh: