Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The Garda Commissioner is by law responsible for all operational policing matters, including the allocation of Garda resources and responses by An Garda Síochána to emergency calls.

In addition, responsibility for the 999/Emergency Call Answering System (ECAS) is under the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. Section 58B of the Communications Regulation Act 2002 (the 2002 Act) enables the Minister for Communications to enter a contract for the operation of the ECAS. As Minister for Justice, I have no role in these matters.

I very much appreciate the service of everyone in the 999/ECAS and the resultant inter-agency co-operation when responding to calls to the service.

An Garda Síochána encourages members of the public to always call 112 or 999 in an emergency. An emergency is any incident which requires an immediate Garda response, for example:

• A danger to life
• Risk of serious injury
• Crime in progress or about to happen
• Offender still at scene or has just left.

Calls for service, whether received through a local Garda station or the 112/999 ECAS system, are routed through the Regional Control Centres and prioritised for response. Higher priority calls will always take priority over lower priority calls.

I am advised by the Garda authorities that An Garda Síochána operates a Regional Control Room strategy which ensures that Garda resources are available to respond to calls for service from the public, including situations where a local resource is not immediately available.

The Garda authorities inform me that An Garda Síochána aim is to answer 80% of 999 calls within 7 seconds and deploy resources immediately giving an estimated time of arrival. An Garda Síochána will take appropriate steps to deal with all incidents and ensure that emergency and life threatening calls receive priority. They will endeavour to get to callers within 15 minutes in urban locations and as soon as possible, given the distance to be travelled, in more rural areas.

GardaSAFE, the new computer aided dispatch system in An Garda Síochána, was rolled out incrementally across the organisation in 2023. The last region, the Dublin Metropolitan Region, went live on GardaSAFE in late November 2023.

This new modern system is tailored to fit the specific needs of AGS and to provide a better response to victims of crime. The system is integrated with the mobility devices and other Garda apps, enhancing overall effectiveness. This new system provides improved governance, addressing a number of the recommendations of the Penman report.

Whilst the focus remains on the operational implementation of the system nationwide, there are some reports available to monitor performance. These are focused on live operational aspects, for example for the Control Centres to monitor call volumes. Over time, and as the amount of data available from GardaSAFE increases, there will be additional reports available within GardaSAFE itself, and also the ability to utilise the data for bespoke queries and analysis, including the development of Key Performance Indicators.