Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter.

The Government is committed to ensure that the Garda Commissioner has the necessary resources available to him in his fight against crime. In addition to increasing the strength of the force, this includes the resources to provide a range of support services. Chief among the latter is the provision of a new digital radio service for the force. Almost €100 million has been provided for Garda technology related projects this year alone and this includes significant financial provision for the new radio service.

Significant progress has been already made in the planning for the provision of the national digital radio service for An Garda Síochána. The Department of Finance has selected a preferred bidder — Tetra Ireland — for the service and is currently conducting detailed contract negotiations with the company. I am advised that these negotiations are nearing completion, enabling a framework agreement to be put in place in the coming weeks.

In tandem, detailed planning and preparatory work by the Garda Síochána is ongoing. This includes participation in a service performance evaluation, whereby a live working system covering a significant geographical area in the Dublin and surrounding areas was put in place by Tetra Ireland and was tested by the Garda and other emergency services to ensure the company was capable of delivering a fully working solution meeting all of the requirements of an emergency services network. National roll out by Tetra Ireland will commence immediately after the framework agreement is signed and is expected to be fully completed within a two-year timeframe.

The provision of the digital radio service will provide a number of advantages for An Garda Síochána. There will be increased security of digital radio services because digital radio transmissions are secured against eavesdropping and interception, which is a major concern with analogue radio systems. There also will be increased protection for Garda officers on operational duty. For example, digital radios come equipped with emergency "single push" buttons, which will transmit an emergency signal to the user group and to the dispatcher in the event of an emergency. An Garda Síochána will have the facility to dispatch assistance immediately to the relevant location.

Another advantage will be improved voice quality and increased radio coverage. The new digital radio service will offer An Garda Síochána a minimum of 96% hand-held radio coverage in any one square kilometre of the country, with most areas having more than 99% coverage. The new digital radio service will also provide An Garda Síochána with the ability to allow person-to-person or group communication between locations nationwide, as well as providing coverage for air support and off shore operations.

Communication with other emergency services will be improved so that, for emergencies and other operational reasons, a member of An Garda Síochána can be in direct communications with his or her counterparts in the other emergency services. Additional services such as communications with mobile and land line telephone systems and data services such as the transmission to officers in the field of photographs of wanted or missing persons will also be provided. The final advantage is that there will be interoperability with other police forces, such as with the digital radio system used by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI, as provided for under the intergovernmental agreement on North-South police co-operation.

The Government has consistently given its commitment that An Garda Síochána will receive every support to assist it in its fight against crime. The Garda budget across all areas for 2008 is more than €1.6 billion, which represents an 11% increase on the 2007 allocation. This will enable the early implementation of the national digital radio service, as well as a broad range of other technology projects being introduced by An Garda Síochána.

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