Mr. John Twomey:

Regarding the Deputy's first question, I spoke previously about the mobility project which was under pilot in Limerick. It has now come to the end of that phase and we aim to deploy 2,000 mobile phones before the end of the year. We have looked at a number of technologies, the various elements of which I alluded to previously, which will streamline and improve both the quality and speed of information our people have on the ground so they can access real-time information at the point in time they need it most. We have developed a number of mechanisms for them to commence prosecutions at the side of the road as opposed to bringing them back to the station. The process will now be technical and mobile as opposed to the current system, which is paper-based and relies on gardaí coming back to the station. Some 2,000 mobile phones will be deployed between now and the end of the year.

Response times are dependent on a call-aided dispatch, CAD, system, which we did not previously have across the entire country. However, we have recently introduced it to deal with emergency calls for services and we now have it in every Garda region, including Cork, Waterford, Galway, and Dublin. That system gives us the ability to provide a response time for any calls for service that are recorded and come in through the emergency call answering service, ECAS. It is slightly more developed in the Dublin metropolitan region, DMR, and we look at our response times there. Calls are classified into four categories: emergency, priority one, priority two, and priority three. In accordance with our policing plan, we have targets and we want a commitment that we will respond to all emergency calls and priority one calls within a 15-minute timeline. We measure that and look at it quarterly, or more frequently if necessary.

As the CAD system develops and is extended nationally, we will have more information available to us in that area. The CAD system is an important development because we now have an electronic record of all calls coming into us, as well as response times, and the link to the response to the community. In time, we can begin to provide information on how many calls to the service we receive, how many of them are related to crimes or non-crimes, and our response times. That kind of information enables us to make more intelligent and effective use of the resources we have. From a preventative perspective, we can deploy resources in advance of calls, but we can also use it to create a roster and ensure we have people in the right places at the right times. Many opportunities will come out as that information becomes more comprehensive.