A MISSING children hotline is still not operating three years after the freephone number was first made available, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
Under EU legislation being transposed into Irish law, Ireland will be required to promote the 116000 hotline service, even though it doesn’t exist at present.
Members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications expressed concern about the fact that the service has not started and called on Government departments and agencies to do more to make it a reality.
Independent Senator Joe O’Toole said it would be outrageous to promote the importance of “116” numbers that were supposed to have social value in EU states where they weren’t in service. Ireland would be the “laughing stock” of Europe if this happened.
In 2007, the European Commission required member states to reserve phone numbers in the format 116XXX for socially important services which could be accessed in any member state. Calls to such numbers are free with the cost incurred by the organisation receiving the calls.
The first of these numbers, 116000, was designated for use as a hotline for missing children and telecommunications regulator ComReg sought operators for the service. However, in spite of advertising three times for applications, none has been received.
Another 116 service, Childline, has been operational since last year and two others, Samaritans and Crime Victims Helpline, are at the trial stage, ComReg commissioner Mike Byrne told the committee.Mr Byrne said the main difficulty was funding.