A purpose-built Emergency Call Answering Service (ECAS) is to be constructed in Ballyshannon, it has been revealed.

Enterprise Minister Mary Coughlan announced the 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 facility will be one of two centres which will process up to five million emergency calls per year.

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Representing an investment of more than €10m, Ballyshannon will eventually be equipped with a state-of-the-art communications centre that will be available on a 24 hour basis, 7 days a week, to react to every emergency in the country.

It is expected the first emergency calls will be handled in a new purpose built call centre to be developed in the Ballyshannon IT Centre, Portnason by late Autumn.

The decision to locate in Ballyshannon was supported by the excellent telecommunications infrastructure where use will be made of the fibre-optic Metropolitan Area Network (MAN).

The Minister said: "I am looking forward to the development of new services to enhance the safety of the citizens of Ireland whereby mobile location information will be made available in real time to the emergency services."

She added: "This will mean they will be assisted in reaching individuals who are unable to give their location details."

(PR/JM)