Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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496. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the detail of his Department’s involvement with the rollout of eCall (details supplied). [27968/18]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The Department of Communications, Climate Change and Environment (DCCAE) has responsibility for the Emergency Call Answering Service (ECAS) In Ireland.  eCall is an EU initiative with the purpose to bring rapid assistance to motorists involved in a collision anywhere in the European Union and is an equipment device which alerts emergency services in the event of a collision. This is mandatory from 31st March 2018 and is a requirement under the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Directive 2010.  In addition the ECAS had to be upgraded to accept these type of emergency calls by October 2017. 

As my Department leads in relation to ITS it has engaged with DCCAE on eCall and has facilitated DCCAE engagement in an EU Commission programme, I_HeERO, which provided significant funding to assist with the upgrade of the ECAS.