James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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962. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the availability and current operational status of the 112 SMS service (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5467/20]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Commission for Communications Regulation is responsible for hosting the 112.ie website. I understand from the Commission that there was a technical issue with the operation of the website in recent weeks which has now been rectified. Although not exclusively for persons with disabilities, the 112 SMS service enables persons, in particular those who may be deaf, hard of hearing or speech-impaired to send text messages to the Emergency Call Answering Service. Although users of the 112 SMS service are encouraged to pre-register with 112.ie, I understand that the technical issues arising with the website did not adversely affect the functionality of the 112 SMS messaging service and that any person with an Irish-registered phone who wished to use SMS to contact the ECAS could do so.