Dinner is set, but the phone rings, and when you pick up it isn’t a friend, or someone you know. It’s not even a person sometimes.

It’s a robocall.

Robocalls for years have managed to catch people at the most inopportune moments.

The shift away from landlines to mobile phones hasn’t seemed to prevent all those fake tax collectors and mortgage vendors from calling.

While the law is supposed to prevent unwanted robocallers from reaching your cellphone without your consent, Republicans are supporting what consumer groups describe as a workaround.

The Republican National Committee is backing a petition that would allow political campaigns and businesses to leave automated messages on your voicemail, without your phone having to ring.

Under consideration by the Federal Communications Commission, which has been asked to review ringless voicemail, the proposal would free telemarketers from restrictions that prevent them from robocalling people’s cellphones without first getting their permission.

For the RNC, which filed comments in support of the proposal to the FCC recently, regulations designed to limit straight-to-voicemail messaging would hinder free speech, and raise constitutional questions about the rights of political organizations.

Supporters of so-called ringless voicemail don’t see them as robocalls or “calls” at all.

“(D)irect-to-voicemail technology permits a voice message to go directly to the intended recipient’s mobile voicemail via a server-to-server communication, without a call being made to the recipient’s telephone number and without a charge,” wrote the RNC.

And proponents argue that straight-to-voicemail messages don’t come with the same frustrating dinnertime disruptions that many associate with telemarketing calls.

But a host of consumer groups see the proposal as an intrusive workaround designed to skirt the law and the requirement to receive a consumer’s consent.

“Americans are already fed up with unwanted calls to their cellphones, which have become increasingly common in recent years,” Maureen Mahoney, a policy analyst for the advocacy group Consumers Union, said in a statement last week.

“The FCC shouldn’t make this problem even worse by weakening consumer protections and opening the door to unwanted voicemail messages from telemarketers and debt collectors.”

Roughly 2.4 billion robocalls are placed every month, according to the FCC, making them the top consumer complaint the agency receives.