Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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561. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the decision of the European Commission to delay the ending of mobile phone roaming charges. [10517/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The regulation of retail charges for roaming services is implemented by way of EU Regulations which limit the maximum retail prices for retail roaming services within the European Union. The first such EU Regulation commenced in 2007. Two further EU Regulations were introduced in 2010 and 2012 to further reduce the maximum permitted retail roaming charges within the EU and to increase consumer protection measures by requiring service providers to inform users of the roaming charges they may incur and additional requirements to curtail services in order to avoid bill shocks in any billing period.

Ireland supported each of the three EU Roaming Regulations which the EU Commission calculates has achieved regulated retail roaming price reductions of over 80% since 2007 in calls, SMS and data. Data roaming retail charges across the EU are now over 90% cheaper than in 2007.

These reductions have benefitted all mobile phone users without any adverse impacts on users who do not use roaming services. This was achieved by reducing both wholesale and retail prices simultaneously.

In September 2013, the European Commission introduced a wide range of proposed measures, including changes to current roaming regulations, as part of a comprehensive Telecoms Single Market (TSM) package.

In early 2014, the then out-going European Parliament, having discussed the TSM proposal, voted to significantly amend the Commission's original proposals and proposed instead a Roam Like At Home (RLAH) approach which would have seen the abolition of roaming charges within the EU by December 2015.

The Parliament’s proposal does not prohibit the imposition of wholesale charges to recover the costs of providing the roaming service to customers. 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, in order to control costs. These outcomes do not serve the long term interests of consumers.

The European Council has been discussing the roaming proposals for several months now and at a recent meeting Ireland along with all Member States agreed to give the Latvian Presidency a mandate to enter into negotiations with the European Parliament on a revised set of proposals on roaming charges across the EU. This will significantly reduce regulated roaming charges further when agreed.