I am replying on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, and I appreciate the Senator's interest in this area.
I am glad to have the opportunity to address the House on the matter of the 116 000 hotline for missing children. The establishment of this hotline is a cross-departmental issue and the Minister intends to ensure that every effort is made to have this hotline up and running as soon as possible. Under revised EU telecommunications rules agreed in 2009, and in particular Article 27a of the universal service directive, member states were required to "make every effort to ensure that citizens have access to a service operating a hotline to report cases of missing children. The hotline shall be available on the number 116 000". The same directive also requires member states to "ensure that citizens are adequately informed of the existence and use of services provided under the 116 numbering range, in particular through initiatives specifically targeting persons travelling between Member States".
The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources is responsible for transposing this directive into national law. In essence, the purpose of the 116000 telephone number is to provide a contact number to families if children go missing. The allocation of specific numbers in the 116 number range in Ireland is managed by the Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg. Currently ComReg has designated the following numbers: 116111 is assigned to Childline; 116006 is assigned to the crime victims helpline; 116000 was assigned to missing children; 116117 is assigned to non-emergency medical on-call services; and 116123 is assigned to emotional support helplines and after a pilot period will be operated by Samaritans.
To date, 18 member states have assigned the 116000 number, 15 of which are functional and operational. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs has in recent months met other Departments regarding the establishment of the hotline. The process to date has involved the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, the Department of Health, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, the Department of Justice and Equality, the HSE and ComReg. To progress this matter, it is intended to co-ordinate the activities of these Departments and ensure that the 116000 hotline is established.
The Minister has recently met NGOs which are eager to assist in the establishment of the hotline and she is grateful for the work they have already put into this process. The Minister will examine the proposals made in this regard with a view to moving this matter forward as quickly as possible. The Garda and HSE take every incident of missing children extremely seriously and are committed to ensuring that any vulnerable children are not exploited or ill-treated as part of their responsibility to provide care for any children in the State who are deemed not to have appropriate or satisfactory care arrangements. This includes separated children seeking asylum.
The input of the Garda is central to the issue of missing children and the Garda has ultimate responsibility for the investigation of these matters. The Garda and the HSE have worked closely on this matter in recent years. The HSE, as the major statutory child care authority in Ireland, recognises the value of an EU common freefone hotline for missing children. Access to a hotline telephone number can be of great assistance to parents when a child goes missing from home or while travelling or on holiday in another European country.
The HSE operates a joint "Missing in Care" protocol with An Garda Síochána which sets out an agreed procedure between the Health Service Executive and the Garda, and clarifies the roles and requirements of both agencies in relation to all children missing from their care placements, as set out in the Child Care Act 1991. A missing child from care is one whose whereabouts are unknown and the circumstances of their disappearance are such that the Health Service Executive, or its agents, risk assess the absence as high risk.
While the introduction of a missing children's hotline involves many Departments, the notification of a missing child is particularly a matter for the Garda Síochána. Accordingly, the Minister is in contact with the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, in seeking to jointly achieve the establishment of this service. Different costings for such a service have been calculated, including by NGOs interested in providing the service. Obviously, in the current financial climate, it is essential that the most economic approach possible is taken to providing any service. The Minister would hope a partnership approach could achieve a cost-effective solution to the implementation of this important initiative.
Given my responsibility in the area of suicide, I wrote to the three mobile phone providers because up to this point, the Samaritans line was funded, in the main, by Eircom as it is a land line service. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, and I wrote to the three mobile phone providers to ask if they would consider providing the same type of service which Eircom delivered in recent years and they came back with a positive response. If the three mobile phone providers come on board, the 116000 number becomes far more viable.
Most emergency calls, not only 999 calls but also calls from people who are feeling suicidal and calls in regard to missing children, are made from mobile phones. It is important to get the mobile phone providers on board in order that we can roll this out efficiency. It will do what the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, hopes it will do, that is, it will give us a unique service from all the mobile phone providers for a minimal cost. I appreciate very much for what the Senator is calling.
