Tom Brabazon (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As this is a justice-related issue, I first want to offer my personal condolences and commiseration to the family and colleagues of Garda Kevin Flatley, who tragically lost his life at the weekend in the course of his duty.

The issue I wish to raise with the Taoiseach is that of the 999 dispatch system, particularly in respect of the Garda. People in general are not aware of the changes that were made by the Commissioner, in that they are no longer in a position to ring their local Garda stations and there is now an obligation on them to ring 999 in all incidents, no matter whether they are small or large, serious or otherwise. This is counterintuitive for members of the public who have been around for a long time and view 999 as something for a very serious incident or emergency. Members of the public are sometimes required to ring 999 for a minor issue, perhaps a small gang of youths who may be acting in an intimidating way, yet, at the same time, it is potentially a quality-of-life-changing issue.

Most of the public are still unaware of this new system. They find it very frustrating when they ring their local Garda station and are told they have to ring 999 instead. However busy the local stations may have been in the past, where a call has been made, people were always more likely than not to get a call back or a visit from a local garda after reporting an incident. However, under this 999 system, a 999 caller in many cases does not get a call back and may never hear back from gardaí.

This is because calls are triaged in 999 call centres and limited resources are despatched to the most serious incidents. As late as yesterday I received a WhatsApp message asking whether the local Garda station was still taking calls. I witnessed in my constituency a minor public order incident escalating to a very serious life-threatening issue. This happened yards from a local Garda station. By the time the issue was triaged in the 999 system it was ten or 15 minutes later and the perpetrator had disappeared. The same person turned up at the same shopping centre the next morning. The system may be working from a Garda management point of view but, unfortunately, from a consumer point of view it seems to be quite weak.

See this speech in context