Action under way to avoid further cancellation of emergency calls, vows McEntee

Everything will be done to ensure emergency calls are not incorrectly cancelled again, the Minister for Justice has vowed.

Helen McEntee said work is under way to ensure a “robust structure” is in place so that when someone calls 999, they receive the requested help.

She said the findings of a report surrounding the cancelling of 999 calls by gardai was “worrying”.

Calls to report a sexual assault and domestic violence incidents were among those wrongly cancelled.

Ms McEntee said she is confident gardai take sexual and gender-based violence seriously.

Speaking on Friday, she said: “I am certain, and I know that because the Garda Commissioner (Drew Harris) himself has, from the very outset of his term, prioritised domestic sexual and gender- based violence.

“The report is worrying. Any person who seeks help, the idea that they would not get the help that they need when they take the decision to come forward, it’s disappointing and we need to just make sure that everything is done to prevent that type of incident from happening again.

“There were numerous instances, not just the one.”

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The report identified “substantial shortcomings” in call handling, including incidents where some call takers did not take sufficient time to assess the vulnerability of callers, and some officers specifically requesting the emergency call incident be cancelled.

The report recommended that resources are put into improving call handling.

Ms McEntee said the recommendations for An Garda Siochana are already being “acted on”, while others will be addressed.

“I really want to go through (the report) in as much detail as possible,” she said. “I had asked for this to be brought to the attention of the Policing Authority back in 2021 because I was concerned about some of the issues that have been brought to my attention.

“All I can say is everything will be done to make sure that we have the most robust structure in place, that when somebody comes forward seeking help that they get that help, that’s the most important thing here.

“I cannot stress how important it is for people to still call 999 if they have a problem, or if they’re in need of the gardai or other types of support or assistance.

“I want people to have confidence in the system, they should have confidence in the system and we just need to improve that confidence as well.”

Meanwhile, the minister said a rise in reported domestic violence cases to the gardai was “perhaps a positive”, as there has been an ongoing effort to encourage people suffering from domestic violence to report it.

Figures published in a garda report last week show there was a spike in the number of calls to gardai reporting domestic violence.

“If you look at the recent garda report that was published last week, the numbers are going up slightly higher in terms of the number of people ringing gardai,” Ms McEntee said.

“We need to focus on prevention, education, providing the supports, but we also need to make sure people are coming forward.

“I would in one way see it in a positive in that there are more people reporting these types of cases, but it just highlights the problems that has already and has always been there and highlights how much we still need to do.”