Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 586: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the concerns expressed by members of the Cork City Fire Service regarding the flaws in the operation of the new mobilisation system due to the lack of local geographical knowledge by the mobilisation centre; if his attention has further been drawn to a number of recent mistakes in the Cork operation, which can be attributed to the new system (details supplied); if his attention has further been drawn to the extra strain that such incidents places on the local service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35293/05]

Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 603: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if an independent audit will be carried out on the response times of emergency services as a result of the introduction of the computer-aided mobilisation procedures under which all 999 calls are routed through a central centre where it is believed that response times have increased due to flawed system procedures. [35578/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 586 and 603 together.

Under section 10 of the Fire Services Act 1981, the provision of a fire service, including provision for the reception of and response to calls for assistance, is a matter for each fire authority. The CAMP, computer aided mobilisation project, system was developed to deal with emergency calls for fire service assistance. Under the system, all such emergency calls are channelled to one of three control centres at Dublin, Castlebar and Limerick and the appropriate fire brigade response is activated from that centre. By joining the system, fire services are freeing up firefighters from telephone answering duties to be available to respond to emergency incidents.

The CAMP system operates on the basis of addresses and pre-determined attendance data supplied and signed off by the individual fire authorities and held on computer at the control centre. When a call is received, the operator establishes the location of the incident with the aid of the computer system; the computer system helps the operator to work with the caller to identify correctly the location of the incident. The system provides, for the first time, an independent record of how each call is handled. This enables any difficulties to be investigated and addressed systematically; calls are analysed on a daily basis. The system also provides indicators of performance.

The Limerick centre, which is designed to serve the Munster counties, has been live since 1992 and has successfully handled hundreds of thousands of emergency calls. The centre has recently achieved ISO 9001:2000 quality management system certification status following an independent review of its performance. Cork City Fire Service joined the system on 31 May 2005 and parallel operation is currently in place. The purpose of parallel operation is to test the CAMP system before going live in order to ensure the accuracy of the data on the computer system without risk to the level or speed of response; this is a standard procedure for computer systems. The fact that some defects have been identified and dealt with underlines the value of this process.