This morning at 4.45 a.m. the Department of Communications carried out a structured exercise in relation to the broadcast of emergency services. This exercise was part of the Government’s commitment to emergency planning.
Early this morning, all television and radio channels carried a 30-second engineering test simultaneously across Ireland.
The four terrestrial broadcasters, regional broadcasters, all national radio channels and the 25 local radio stations carried an announcement indicating that an engineering test was being conducted and that normal programming would resume at the end of the test.
The exercise was designed to simulate an urgent requirement of the Government and/or the emergency services to have access to radio and TV broadcast platforms in a short time scale in order to broadcast to the public. The Government Task Force on Emergency Planning considers that in the event of an emergency, broadcast media will be the most efficient vehicle for the transmission of emergency messages to the public.
This is the first time such an exercise has ever been carried out in Ireland. It was also the first time that Government Buildings has been used to distribute a message to virtually every broadcast entity in the State.
The timing of the exercise was deliberately chosen to test the response times of the broadcasters. Most stations are unmanned in the early ours of the morning and it was considered an excellent simulation of an emergency situation where stations would have to react quickly in unusual circumstances.
Communications Minister Eamon Ryan said, “I am pleased that this morning’s exercise went without a hitch. Contact was made with the broadcasters in question early this morning and they had very little time to co-ordinate this national broadcast response. The exercise was designed to test the ability of the broadcast networks to work together and to have available a critical infrastructure that will allow emergency messages to be broadcast to the public should the need arise. This they did quickly and effectively.
This is a very positive outcome for Government emergency planning. I would like to commend the broadcasters, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland and Oireachtas TV for their cooperation in this exercise”.
The Minister confirmed that a full evaluation of the exercise would be carried out.
ENDS