Up to 50 jobs on the cards for Ballyshannon


18 May 2009

An Emergency Call Answering Service (ECAS) is to be located in Ballyshannon in Co Donegal, which will result in a welcome injection of up to 50 jobs for Donegal’s local economy

The ECAS is to be established after a concession  agreement was awarded to BT Ireland following a public procurement  process. The service will result in employment for up to 100 people, with approximately 50 jobs being located in Ballyshannon.

The Ballyshannon facility will be one of two centres that will process up to five million emergency calls per year. 

The ECAS service represents an investment of more than €10m, whereby Ballyshannon will be equipped with a cutting-edge communications centre that will be available on a 24-hour basis, 7 days a week, to react to every emergency in the country.

The centre will accept calls from the public and forward them onto the appropriate control rooms operated by the Gardaí, the fire service, and ambulance and coastguard services respectively.

The first emergency calls will be handled in a new purpose-built call centre in the Ballyshannon IT Centre, Portnason by late autumn.

Speaking at the announcement of the ECAS service, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan TD, said: “Mobile location information will be made available in real-time to the emergency services. This will mean they will be assisted in reaching individuals who are unable to give their location details.”

She added that she was particularly pleased to see new highly skilled jobs being delivered to south Donegal.

By Carmel Doyle