by Alan Jacques
A NEW on-site co-ordination unit has been launched by Limerick City and County Council to help in the response to major incidents that take place in the region.
As part of the Major Emergency Management programme, the new mobile co-ordination unit will provide local authority personnel with an on-site facility to respond to major emergencies in a more effective and efficient manner.
Launched this week by Mayor Kevin Sheahan, the unit will act as a command and control centre on-site for the Council’s response to major incidents along with facilitating meetings with the other principal response agencies in the region such as An Garda Síochána and the Health Service Executive.
“This new vehicle will be a huge asset to our staff dealing with major incidents such as flooding, severe weather incidents, road traffic events or other major emergencies,” Cllr Sheahan predicted.
Work is currently underway in conjunction with the Council’s ICT Department to set up a teleconference facility in the vehicle which will allow a live teleconference back to the crisis management team and local co-ordination centre located within the local authority’s headquarters.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Niall Murray, who oversaw the fitting out of the vehicle locally, said it had been designed to be functional and for personnel to respond to incidents irrespective of location.
“Decision making and communication is vital to an effective response to a major incident. The new co-ordination vehicle allows us access an electronic information management system which is used to identify key issues and capture the evolving events of a major incident. This allows information to be automatically recorded and communicated to all relevant personnel and agencies and will greatly assist us particularly during evaluation in post event reviews,” said Mr Murray.
