Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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230. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to outline the work that has been done to ensure tetra access in Connemara in the event of a storm, given that there was no access to 999 calls during Storm Éowyn; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62511/25]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Tetra communications network was designed to provide a reliable and robust emergency network for the State's emergency personnel with the widest possible coverage and is delivered by Tetra Ireland. The coverage of Tetra is far in excess of the sum of the commercial mobile networks in Ireland.

The network offers push to talk voice services for emergency personnel throughout the state. This allows organisations such as An Garda Síochána and the National Ambulance Service to operate in remote areas with reliable communications. During extreme weather events many organisations make extensive use of the network as part of their co-ordinated response; this includes the Local Authority sector and ESB networks.

My Department acts as the Contracting Authority for the contract with Tetra Ireland and established a single supplier framework for the drawdown of services in December 2020. Any organisation that provides emergency services to the State may drawdown services from the framework.

In order to provide maximum coverage and resilience all areas in the country are covered by overlapping service from at least two base stations with battery backup in place for key sites. This level of coverage has allowed service to be provided during previous severe weather events.

As a result of the extended power outage seen in the West and Northwest of the country following Storm Éowyn there was some disruption to the Tetra network in those areas. A number of steps have been taken to increase resilience and reduce the chances of any further disruption.

A preventative maintenance inspection programme has been completed at all Tetra base station sites which included verification that battery backup units are performing as designed. Tetra Ireland has obtained additional generator units that can be deployed in the event of another sustained power outage to maintain service. A number of base station sites in the West and Northwest have also been upgraded to allow for both additional battery and generator capacity.

Tetra Ireland has established a new storm response protocol with ESB Networks that is designed to allow for rapid power restoration when outages occur. This protocol was used successfully during and after Storm Amy in October of this year.

I note that the Deputy refers to access to 999 calls in her question. The provision of calls to the 999 service is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport.