Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 May 2026
165. Deputy Duncan Smith asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will detail the processes used by the fire brigade and emergency services to locate addresses; if those processes include Eircodes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37967/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe provision of a fire service in its functional area, including the establishment and maintenance of a fire brigade, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of fire station premises, is a statutory function of individual fire authorities under the Fire Services Act, 1981 & 2003. My Department supports fire authorities through setting general policy, providing a central training programme, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding support for equipment and priority infrastructural projects. Fire service issues are managed in my Department by the National Directorate for Fire & Emergency Management (NDFEM).
The arrangements for mobilising a response to a fire service 999/112 emergency call from the public for fire service assistance are handled at three Regional Communications Centres based in WRCC (Castlebar), MRCC (Limerick) and the ERCC (Dublin).
The new National Mobilisation and Communications System (NMACS) allows Fire Services to avail of new technologies for the location of 112/999 callers. This includes Eircodes, Automatic Mobile Location (AML), Call Line Identification (CLI), Address Gazetteer database (legacy & GeoDirectory), Geographical Information Systems (digital maps) and use of location coordinates.
Typically, the process involves the receipt of a data burst with the telephony coming from ECAS BT via 999 identifying the callers location in the form of CLI/AML and this location is plotted on the mapping system. The professional operator staff employ targeted questioning techniques, gathering essential details from the caller and using information received through AML or CLI. Operators verify the address details gathered via AML/ CLI with the caller. Alternatively, operators search the gazetteer database to pinpoint the relevant Eircode or address, ensuring precise location of the incident and an efficient emergency response.
NMACS is currently live in two of the three Regional Control Centres serving 121 Fire Stations across the Munster and Western Regions. Work is ongoing to migrate the East regional communication centre onto the national system.
It should be noted that a large proportion of fire service emergency response calls are not to individual premises that have designated Eircodes but to non-addressable locations such as roads, motorways, bridges, etc.
Fire services are dispatched based on Pre-Determined Attendances (PDAs), which are instructions established by the Chief Fire Officer for specific incident types (e.g., house fires, road traffic collisions). The system lists the "next nearest appliance" in sequence to ensure operational resilience. If a local station is unavailable (e.g., already attending another incident or "off the run"), the system automatically mobilises the next nearest available resource, regardless of administrative boundaries.
