GeoDirectory is used by Ireland’s emergency services to respond rapidly to 999 calls. When you’re dealing with emergencies, a few minutes delay can be fatal. You need to know exactly where you’re going – and the fastest route to get there.
Minuscule detail can be crucial. eg., there may be several different entrances into a housing estate – and there are times when every single second counts.
Even the more routine call-outs handled daily by the emergency services demand the highest standards of efficiency. A rapid response by the fire service to a small scale fire can prevent extensive damage to property. The speedy arrival of an ambulance can minimise suffering for someone who has taken ill or been involved in an accident.
To do their job professionally, Ireland’s ambulance and fire crews need top-quality back-up which provides them with fast and reliable information they can trust.
For the emergency services, GeoDirectory has become indispensable
It provides a fingerprint for every building in the Republic of Ireland – a unique, standardised address in the form of an eight-digit number, each pinpointed to an exact geographical location. This allows our firefighters, ambulance crew and paramedics to get to the scene of an incident swiftly and efficiently.
When you dial 999 - or the European standard emergency number 112 – from any of the 11 counties of Leinster, or from Monaghan or Cavan, you’ll be put through to the East Region Control Centre.
According to Richard Sheehan, the Senior Executive Emergency Communications Officer for the control centre, one of the most vital tasks of the centre is to immediately verify the exact location where assistance is needed.
In the past, the control centre used its own in-house address register which they had compiled with the help of the various fire authorities in the region. Richard Sheehan says: