‘Brexit could mean no roaming charge abolition’, Fearon warns

South Armagh MLA Megan Fearon has outlined the consequences that Brexit could have on the planned abolition of roaming charges in the EU on the 15th of June.

Fearon warned of a “ludicrous situation” whereby roaming charges may remain in the north, but are abolished elsewhere throughout Europe.

“While roaming charges are due to be abolished within the EU in June 2017, with Brexit they could be reintroduced here as the six counties will be dragged out of the EU,” she said.

“This will have a particularly bad effect on people in border communities who have long suffered extortionate charges, leading to a ridiculous situation where people in Cork could call the far side of Europe for less than people in my constituency could call Dundalk.

“Recently my colleague, TD Brian Stanley, raised the issue with European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip to point out the many problems that this would cause, not least the debilitating effect on business and cross-border activity.

“Mr. Ansip responded by saying that the Commission won’t negotiate on this until Britain triggers Brexit. The fumbling of Westminster politicians is once again leaving Irish people in the dark.

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Fearon added, “Issues such as this must be kept to the fore and solutions found during the Brexit negotiations. Much progress has been made on all-Ireland integration and irrespective of the outcome of Brexit negotiations, this progress should not be allowed to be undone.”

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Posted by Newry Times News on Sep 23 2016. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry