Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy for this question. I am pleased to advise that officials are actively discussing the launch of the Irish component of the EU critical communications system with the European Commission with a view to Ireland becoming an early adopter of this.

I hope the Deputy will be pleased to know that six weeks ago Government launched a new mission critical communications system that was built by Vodafone in partnership with the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer. It has been set up to be able to help emergency services, such as An Garda Síochána, the Fire Service, the National Ambulance Service, the Coast Guard, Civil Defence, to be able to communicate and co-ordinate effectively through more resilient challenges.

The Deputy mentioned Storm Éowyn. I suppose that identified communities, in particular, rural communities, and especially the island communities, which were vulnerable in a situation where our already resilient systems unfortunately were unable to perform because of power failure.

The mission critical communications system, which was under the EU resilience fund, was built as a system of systems to be able to make sure that our lines are fully resilient. We tested it in September. That happened in Westport. Both I and the Minister, Deputy Chambers, were delighted to be able to join emergency services' colleagues not only from Ireland but from across the EU, who together ran a live testing. It was a maritime scenario where they looked at a Coast Guard vessel that was five miles offshore and they were able to make sure they were able to receive real-time video streaming from an aircraft. This was done using satellite technology. It was done using satellite-enabled links that are designed to provide communication connectivity even if terrestrial networks fail.

It was successfully trialled. It is part of the broader European critical communications system. I can give the Deputy more information in my next contribution.

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