Vol. 437 No. 6
280 Mr. M. McDowell asked the Minister for Justice whether her attention has been drawn to the fact that a company (details supplied) in Dublin 8 has been deprived of Garda Síochána alarm protection; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
I understand that Garda response to automatic alarm activations from the premises referred to in the question was discontinued on 1 March 1993, in accordance with the terms of the Garda Policy on Intruder Alarms. The policy was introduced with effect from 1 September 1992 with the aim of reducing the level of false alarm activations by getting the owners of premises to take the remedial action necessary to improve the operation of their alarm systems. In recent years false alarms have accounted for approximately 94 per cent of all alarm activations notified to the Garda. This involved very substantial waste of Garda time and resources and it diverted those resources away from genuine alarm calls and other calls for Garda assistance.
I understand from the Garda authorities that the owner of the premises referred to in the question has gone to considerable expense to avoid false alarm activations in future, and that as a result they reinstated Garda response with effect from 20 January 1994.
The responsibility for ensuring that false alarm activations remain within the limits set out in the policy, rests with the owner of the premises.
