Ireland gives effect to Article 110 through Regulation 93A of SI 444 of 2022, which provides that I, as Minister, may direct mobile network operators to transmit a public warning via SMS to end-users of their services in the event of an imminent or developing major emergency or disaster. This provision has not been tested.
While the regulation meets the needs of the Directive, the effectiveness of distributing public warning via SMS is impacted by network capacity, congestion and SMS character limits.
Government intends to establish a cell broadcast public warning system (CB-PWS) for transmitting public warning messages. Cell broadcast is an effective technology for distributing public warning messages and it utilised in many other jurisdictions. CB-PWS messages are not impacted by the same issues as SMS and can be sent to mobile phone users in a specific geographic area.
To implement the CB-PWS system my department is working closely with the Department of Defence and other stakeholders.
An advisory service was procured in Q3 2024 which has enabled my Department to develop technical specifications and recommendations in relation to this project.
Pending Government approval of these recommendations it is anticipated to begin procurement for the PWS technical solution in 2026, with full testing and implementation of the CB-PWS in 2027.
This will allow the PWS to become part of existing emergency communications structures that are already in place and, in the appropriate circumstances, it will be another channel to provide information to the public among those already existing, such as social media, TV and radio.
