The Margin was interested to note this week that the British government is considering introducing telephone polling in a bid to get people to exercise their franchise in general elections. Could it happen here? And would Telecom Eireann get the contract?

Saturday night's Eurovision Song contest does not bode well for such a scenario. The televoting system - whereby voters ring particular numbers to vote for particular songs - collapsed due to a "technical fault". "From what we understand very few people at all registered their vote," a Telecom spokeswoman explained the following day.

Luckily there were no such technical hitches for the registration of interest in the company's flotation - a process which could also be done by telephone.