Abolition of roaming charges
Catherine Noone welcomes the EU agreement to abolish mobile roaming charges by 2017 and reduce interim surcharges.
I supported a motion last week about the funding of Rape Crisis Network Ireland. I wish to indicate the view of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre that its funding has not been cut, although it is under-funded. The centre asked me last night to make this point. I apologise for any injury caused to the Minister. The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre is, however, looking for additional funding and asks that Tusla be better funded to that purpose.
I also wish to raise the lone parents issue. I have heard this kicked around town and around the Houses for the last couple of weeks. I received e-mails today suggesting that, for example, a woman working as a cleaner in a school for 2.5 hours a day or 12.5 hours a week does not qualify for family income supplement. The loss of income to her family is €142 a week. Somewhere along the line, somebody has got this wrong. It would take great courage for somebody to come in to the House and admit he or she got it wrong and needs to go back and address the legislation. The Government side has got it wrong and 10,000 families are going to lose money. I am proposing an amendment to the Order of Business, that we take No. 74, motion No. 17, before No. 1. The very least we owe lone parents is our interest in their welfare and that of their children. For God's sake, we hear what is going on in Greece, with families eating out of dustbins and things like that. A woman who is doing decent work, spending 2.5 hours a day cleaning a school, is losing €142 a week. It is nonsense. Let us be honest with ourselves and those who are suffering.
Comment on this
I have good news on an issue which I have raised numerous times before. I am delighted an agreement has been reached on the abolition of roaming charges between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council. It is due to come into effect in June 2017. From April 2016 we will have surcharges for roaming capped at 5 cent per minute for calls. There will also be reductions for SMS messages and megabytes. It is a far cry from where we were just a few years ago. In 2010 the charge was €7 per megabyte of data when roaming, 140 times what it will cost in April 2016. It seems extraordinary, looking back. In 2010 a call cost 52 cent per minute, ten times what it will cost in 2016. This is a positive change by the European Union. It still has to be voted on by the European Parliament, but I gather that agreement has been reached. A few months ago it looked as though the measure would be stalled entirely, but it is now likely to come to pass.