Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I have always recognised the need to provide the Garda Síochána with secure radio communication systems. As the Deputy is aware, a pilot digital radio system covering the Dublin north central division and traffic section, Dublin Castle, has been completed by the Garda Síochána. Following its completion the Garda Síochána prepared and submitted to me a detailed business case for the provision of a nationwide system.

Following discussions between officials of my Department, the Garda Síochána and the Department of Finance on the technical and implementation options in the business case, as well as discussions surrounding the funding for the project, it was agreed that a procurement model based on an outsourced service provision be adopted. The rationale behind this decision is two-fold. First, it will minimise the need for members of the Garda Síochána to support and maintain the system — in other words, the private sector will operate and support the system. This is in line with my overall policy of ensuring that Garda resources are concentrated on operational duties. Second, the approach being adopted should allow participation by the other emergency services, thus enabling all emergency services to communicate with one another in the context of major emergencies and other shared or joint operations, or ordinary blue light activity by the emergency services.

I estimated that the cost of this project could have been well over €100 million. I made the decision that instead of venturing into the acquisition of a communications system at that cost, the appropriate action was to rent an effective system from people whose job it would be to ensure it remained effective and, in that way, to avoid a massive capital expenditure by the State on a one-off basis.

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