187. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of the proposal to ban roaming mobile telephone charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3433/16]

The European Parliament and the Council have adopted Regulation 2015/2120 which was published in the Official Journal of the EU on the 26 November 2015. The Regulation imposes further reductions in the maximum permitted roaming retail charges within the EU with the objective of abolishing such charges from June 2017. As interim measures, the Regulation requires mobile operators to further reduce the maximum retail roaming charges from April 2016 when the maximum permitted roaming charges (exclusive of VAT) for voice calls will reduce from 19 cent to 5 cent per minute, the permitted SMS or text message retail charge will reduce from 6 cent to 2 cent and for data downloads from 20 cent to 5 cent per megabit. The Regulation proposes to abolish retail roaming charges in their entirety across the EU, from June 2017.