Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. He is correct in that I have much empathy for what he describes as I have driven through the Border twice every time I have come to these Houses since 2002, or for 13 years. It has been an issue.

I welcome this opportunity to clarify for the House the steps taken by the EU institutions to control, reduce and ultimately to eliminate roaming charges within the European Union.

I am aware of the recent media reports which suggested the Council or the Commission does not support actions to eliminate roaming charges, or is seeking to delay the removal of roaming charges, contrary to the consumers' interest. This is not an accurate representation of the true position. The Minister fully supports harmonised EU actions to eliminate roaming charges, but this shared objective has to be achieved in a manner that avoids long-term adverse impacts on users of mobile phone services generally, including those who do not avail of roaming services.

The EU has made substantial progress in reducing the maximum permitted roaming charges. Three EU regulations, adopted since 2007, have progressively reduced roaming charges by an estimated 80%. This includes voice calls, SMS, texting, and data-Internet access. These substantial reductions in retail roaming prices are also sustainable due to the imposition of proportionate reductions in wholesale charges.

The European Commission brought forward proposals for a future EU regulation to incentivise mobile service providers to remove roaming charges voluntarily. The European Parliament adopted an amendment to the European Commission proposal which would prohibit retail roaming charges within the EU from December 2015. The European Parliament's proposal does not prohibit the imposition of wholesale charges. If service providers are prohibited from recovering those wholesale costs directly from retail users, it is inevitable they will seek to recover the costs from other users or reduce volume limits in bundled minutes and data package limits to control costs. These outcomes would not serve the long-term interests of users.

The shared position within Council is to give the Latvian Presidency a mandate to enter into negotiations with the European Parliament to reduce retail roaming charges further towards zero. The revised charges, if agreed by Parliament, will deliver significant further reductions in regulated retail roaming charges and allow service providers to recover the wholesale costs incurred in providing the service. The proposal provides for a further review of the regulation by June 2018 which will include a further review of both wholesale and retail roaming charges.

I am glad to have had this opportunity to clarify for the House the significant progress which has been made possible by EU regulations to control and reduce retail roaming charges and to confirm that the Government's ultimate objective is to eliminate retail roaming prices in a manner which does not generate predictable adverse impacts for users.

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