Emergency Services

Wednesday, 11 May 2022

Questions (221)

Catherine Murphy

Question:

221. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the number of 999 calls processed by the Dublin Metropolitan Region dispatch centre in 2021 and to date in 2022; and the breakdown of 999 calls for the timeframe requested by division headquarters in the region. [23582/22]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Justice

I have contacted the Garda authorities to provide the information sought by the Deputy, unfortunately this was not to hand in time. I will write to the Deputy once the information is received.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51

I refer to Parliamentary Question No. 221 of 11 May 2022 where you sought:

“To ask the Minister for Justice the number of 999 calls processed by the Dublin Metropolitan Region dispatch centre in 2021 and to date in 2022; and the breakdown of 999 calls for the timeframe requested by division headquarters in the region.”

As you will recall, I sought the information you requested from the Garda authorities and undertook to contact you again once the information was to hand.

I am advised by the Garda authorities that Emergency Call Answering Services (ECAS) assisted An Garda Síochána in extracting and providing the requested data.

I am informed that the Control Room in Harcourt Square is responsible for managing and processing calls received in respect of the Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR) as well as three Divisions in the Eastern Region (namely Laois/Offaly, Kildare and Wicklow).

In addition, the Control Room in Harcourt Square also has responsibility for managing and processing all silent calls received in the State. Silent calls relate to calls from the public to 999/112 via ECAS in which the caller does not speak when the call is answered. As it’s a silent call, there is no way of telling what emergency service they need, so the procedure is to forward to the Garda Control Room for follow up where possible.

The below table provides a breakdown of the requested data on a Divisional basis for the period 1 February 2021 to 12 May 2022.

Division	Totals calls (1/2/21 - 12/5/22)
DMR-Eastern Division	12,784
DMR-North Central Division	54,035
DMR-Northern Division	50,061
DMR-South Central Division	46,270
DMR-Southern Division	27,199
DMR-Western Division	55,995
Dublin Total	246,344
Garda - Kildare	17,406
Garda - Laois/Offaly	12,549
Garda - Wicklow	9,521
Garda - Silent	70,027
Grand Total incl. Eastern and silent calls	355,847

I hope that this information is of assistance.