Demand on the service is hampered as four out of five calls to 999 are hoax ones Eircom will no longer foot the full bill for the free emergency phone service. Iva Pocock writes
The future of the 999 emergency phone service is under consideration following Eircom's decision that it should no longer bear the full burden of operating the line.
Since privatisation in 1999 the company has continued to run the emergency service from two call centres in Dublin and Mullingar, Co Westmeath, as when it was a State-owned enterprise.
But Eircom's role in the provision of the 999/112 service has now changed given the critical nature of emergency services, the heightened profile of security matters, and fundamental changes in the telecommunications market, according to company spokesman Seamus Banim.
It is now in discussion with the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources over the service's future financing.
"We're in early discussion regarding putting in place a shared call answering service because there's more than one player in this market now," a Department spokesman told The Irish Times. Nothing is agreed to date and discussions are ongoing.
It is understood the Department is considering levying a fee from other telecommunications companies in order to pay for the 999 call-answering and routing service.
Chief executive of Smart Telecom, Oisin Fanning, agrees that telecommunications companies should take some of the cost burden of running the emergency service number. "We can't expect to be allowed to compete without taking a share of these costs," he says. However, companies should foot the bill in proportion to their share of the market, he believes.
As part of a restructuring in Eircom, it is understood the 999 emergency number call-answering service in Mullingar may be closed in favour of two dedicated 24-hour service centres in Dublin.
This proposal would ensure that staff operating the 999 emergency number would be physically separated from 11811 directory inquiry operations, and could therefore not be asked to answer both numbers, as has happened at times over the past year, according to sources familiar with the service.
Emergency operators were occasionally asked to cover 11811 calls when activity on the 999 line was slack, The Irish Times understands. This required staff having to move from one desk to another, and led to delays in answering 999 calls.
The Eircom spokesman denies that any staff had to answer calls from both services. "999 staff are totally dedicated" and this is born out by the average customer response time of two seconds on the emergency line, he notes.
He also rejects claims that the quality of computer technology available to emergency services staff was out of date and thus delayed the possible speed of response. It is understood that some keys on computer keyboards do not work and that staff sometimes have to key in 10 digit phone numbers for certain services, rather than use faster options available for the main emergency numbers.
However, Eircom rejects any suggestion that the service (which is a cost burden) is under-resourced, while favouring the cash-earning 11811 number. "Eircom remains committed to continuing to make its network available free of charge giving network priority to 999/112 emergency services calls," he adds.
Sources familiar with the service have told The Irish Times that over the past month as few as four staff members were covering the national emergency line at any one time, and that Eircom management recognised the need to increase staffing levels in order to protect the company from liability.
"The appropriate number of staff is there at all times as staffing levels are aligned to call patterns. This is born out by the average customer response time on the emergency line of two seconds," Banim says.
Problems regarding the level of staffing at the 999 emergency service have never been brought to the attention of the Communications Workers Union (CWU), according to union executive Ray Lawlor.
The demand on the service is indicated by the statistic that four out of five calls to the 999/112 number are hoax calls. "The numbers increase at pub closing time and between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. when children come home from school," Banim says.
One source told The Irish Times that such calls can cause queues, especially when there are limited staff on duty, and that delays of up to two minutes may ensue. Eircom, however, rejects this "out of hand" and reiterates that the average call response for the emergency line is two seconds.
Hoax calls are taken seriously as they are a criminal offence, and if someone calls repeatedly the relevant information is passed onto the Garda, he says. There are no available Garda statistics for the number of people, if any, who were prosecuted for making nuisance calls to 999/112 in 2003. It is also understood that some hoax callers are known by name to the emergency number operators.