Gardaí are to be equipped with a new digital radio system that has caused health concerns and protests in Britain.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell today announced that the consortium, Tetra Ireland Ltd, has been selected to provide the National Digital Radio Service and are working with An Garda Síochána and other departments and agencies on the rollout of the service.
The consortium takes its name from the digital radio technology it is proposing: Terrestrial Trunked Radio (Tetra).
Tetra technology is already in use in several European countries by police, fire, rescue and military authorities.
However ist implementation for the British police force caused protests and complaints from communities where the communications masts were to be sited.
There were fears over the safety of the operating frequency of the masts and some experts claimed there was a possibility that sustained exposure to these frequencies could cause health problems.
Police officers involved in a pilot scheme in the north of England in 2002 claimed that their new digital portable radios induced migraines, sleeplessness and concentration problems.
A study by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority in Britain, last year found there was a "medium" possibility that these radios could interfere with sensitive machines such as pacemakers and hospital life support equipment, although the report noted analogue radios (as currently used in the Republic) posed a greater threat.
Emergency service representative bodies have long called for a secure, encrypted communication network that will function regardless of the status of mobile phone networks, and which cannot be intercepted by criminals.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) have called for more reliable communications system since August last year when several officers in Cork were hospitalised after an incident where their analogue radios failed, and back-up arrived too late to prevent the gardaí being injured.
Mr McDowell said the new service will provide for "new and improved service delivery models by An Garda Síochána themselves such as the opportunity to rationalise Radio Control Rooms into a small number of dedicated specialist and dedicated centres".
The National Digital Radio Service will "provide a secure communications service which is effective, resilient and reliable by ensuring there is no single point of failure in the system," he added.
This first phase will be completed by July this year. As the rollout progresses and radio coverage is available, Garda divisions will be migrating to the new service.
It offers a broad range of services and advantages over existing analogue systems to the force including:
- Increased security
- Increased protection
- Improved voice quality
- Increased radio coverage
The system will cover the whole State and provide air and off-shore coverage. Communication with other emergency services will also be part of the package.
Mr McDowell said: "The Government has been consistently committed to ensuring that An Garda Síochána will receive every possible support to enable them to operate effectively as a modern police force including the provision of information and communications technology to place them on a par with the best equipped police forces in the world.
"Today marks another significant landmark in delivering on that promise."