Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support other colleagues, in particular Senator Cáit Keane who was responsible for setting up the model school for the deaf with Mr. Brian Crean who is currently with the Irish Deaf Society. She was modest in her comments about her involvement. I am encouraged to hear what Senator John Gilroy has had to say was about his meeting with the Minister yesterday; just because Ministers do not drop the work they are doing to come to the House to debate an issue with us does not mean that they are not actively working on it. I have every confidence that advocacy services will be reinstated, as they should be, in the near future.

I mention an issue I have mentioned on numerous occasions, that of roaming charges in the European Union. In recent months we have seen such charges across Europe fall as a consequence of work being done by the European Commission. Only two weeks ago a cap was put on data roaming charges across Europe, which would see the charge for browsing the web while abroad capped at 20 cent per megabyte. That charge is still too high, but it represents serious progress, as the charge has been reduced from approximately 80 cent per megabyte about one year ago. I am disappointed that the telecommunications companies - this should not come as a big surprise - are looking for every loophole possible in the legislation and do not seem keen to embrace, even though they say they are, the pro-consumer, pro-business and pro-tourism moves of the European Union on this front. There are many instances of where people tether - I did not know what this was until I read more about it - or use their mobile phone to allow use of iPads in browsing the Internet, for which they are charged about €5 a day. Without going into the details, it seems that loopholes are being used by the telecommunications companies. I am supportive of the European Commission's continued push in this area to quash roaming fees and ensure a pro-consumer and pro-business regime is fully implemented. That is the intention of the policy and legislation being produced by the European Union.