Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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423. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to ensure the emergency services phoneline, 999-112, will be fully accessible to the deaf community; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32123/14]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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424. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to ensure the emergency services phoneline 999-112 is fully accessible to the deaf community; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32124/14]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 423 and 424 together.

The Emergency Call Answering Service (ECAS) handles all emergency calls in the State and forwards calls to the relevant Emergency Service. ECAS introduced a text messaging service since 2012 to enable deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people in the Republic of Ireland send an SMS text message to ECAS where it will be passed to An Garda Síochána, the Ambulance Service, the Fire service, or the Irish Coastguard as appropriate. The ECAS operator will act as a relay between the texter and the required emergency service. There is a need to register the mobile phone number before using the 112 SMS service. The Commission for Communications Regulation, Comreg, has created a webpage which includes details on how to register on its website.