FINE Gael councillor Adam Teskey told council management this week that he was “flabbergasted” to discover that the local authority’s emergency phone line is manned in Portugal.
According to the Adare-Rathkeale representative, he had cause to use the out of hours emergency number after a mother was stuck in her car with a four-month-old baby at the carpark of the Palatine Centre in Rathkeale. The issue, he claimed, was handled by a phone operator in Portugal, who had attempted to get through to the Limerick office.
“I was flabbergasted to find out when I had to use our own emergency line the other evening that it was picked up in Portugal. I made a phone call to the emergency phone line to get ‘thank you for calling Limerick City and County Council, this is such and such speaking’ and I said to him, ‘where are you based?’
“‘We’re based in Portugal’.”
Cllr Teskey continued: “there was a person stuck in a car with a four-month-old baby at the Palatine Centre in Rathkeale, at the start of the Greenway, where we’re putting up bollards at five o’clock, and the cars that are there, can’t get out.
“I rang Portugal and they told me that they tried to ring the emergency line here and it went unanswered on five occasions. Now we are a local authority and the whole essence of a local authority is that we deal with local issues in an expedient manner.”
The Adare-Rathkeale representative insisted that council members are given a direct line in case of emergency or extreme circumstances so they don’t end up calling Portugal.
“I think it’s an absolute joke that we’re ringing overseas to deal with a local issue that was only three miles down the road from my own house. I want that rectified,” he fumed.
Cllr Stephen Keary (FG) said he had a similar experience a week earlier with an old man in a jeep in the same carpark.
“The bollards come up around five o’clock. This was around six. I was on my way to a funeral when he rang me and luckily I had a meter box key in my car and was able to open one of the bollards. We made the gap wider to get him out, but that’s not for me as a councillor to be doing. I rang the emergency number and I got some guy in Shanghai or somewhere to answer me,” Cllr Keary declared.
Independent councillor Jerome Scanlan also told the council executive that he made a phone call on Sunday evening in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn when an issue arose in Newcastle West.
“The phone call I made to the emergency service was answered by somebody in Portugal. There was an hour and 20 minutes of critical time lost in that particular case,” Cllr Scanlan said.
“From an efficiency point of view, we have got to have local people looking after the needs of our local area. Bear that in mind, please.”
