Vol. 516 No. 5
173 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the person responsible for monitoring the performance of the 999 or 112 service in terms of rate of unsuccessful connection, the stand-by service in the event of failure, the distribution of calls to the appropriate follow-up emergency service and the response of the service; and the level of complaints received. [8495/00]
Currently all general and mobile telecommunications licences require the licensee to provide access for customers to the 999-112 service which is operated by Eircom. All licensees are required to comply with any appropriate directions that may be made by the director of telecommunications regulation in this regard.
I understand that Eircom monitor the performance of this service on an ongoing basis. The office of the Director of Telecommunications is not aware of any deficiencies in the service.
Under normal conditions all emergency calls are processed at either of Eircom's two operator centres located in Dublin and Mullingar. Calls are then forwarded to the appropriate emergency service. I understand that Eircom also has in place additional network facilities to ensure continuation of the service in the event of any network disruption.
I have no function in relation to the responses of the emergency services to calls from the 999-112 service.
