Vol. 560 No. 1
910 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government his views on measures (details supplied) to deal with the problem of burglar alarms accidentally going off and continuing to cause a nuisance over a long period in new residential housing estates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1383/03]
Faulty alarms gave rise to 11% of the noise complaints made to Dublin City Council in 2001, the only local authority for which my Department has information. In this case noise from faulty alarms is the third lowest of all categories of complaints listed. Nevertheless, I recognise that alarms are a source of neighbourhood noise. A number of arrangements are in place to reduce the incidence of unnecessary noise from alarms and to tackle persistent incidence of such noise.
In the case of Dublin, the city council issues guidelines in relation to intruder alarms which recommend that owners/occupiers of alarmed property should nominate at least two keyholders that can be contacted in the event of the activation of the alarm.
The National Standards Authority of Ireland has published a voluntary standards specification (No. 199 of 1987). It operates a certification scheme to that standard which, inter alia, specifies a minimum of 15 minutes and a maximum of 30 minutes duration for the sounding of external alarms in buildings with the alarms being required to cease automatically after the maximum duration. The connection of monitored intruder alarm systems to Garda stations is contingent, inter alia, upon the use of alarm systems which are certified by NSAI and installed by certified installers, and the provision to the Garda of contact details for the keyholder and alternate keyholders.
A European standard for external intruder alarms, which will replace all current national standards, will incorporate considerably stricter controls regarding minimum and maximum duration for the sounding of alarms. The new limits are 90 seconds minimum and 15 minutes maximum. This new standard will be the only one applied by the NSAI from September.
The promulgation of the Irish standard, the development of the European standard, the requirements of the Garda for monitored alarms, improved equipment and the co-operation of installers certified by the NSAI have all been instrumental in ensuring that the incidence of false alarms and the failure of audible alarms to cut off have been significantly reduced.
