Two year delay on missing children hotline (19/2/09)

February 19, 2009 at 11:32 am Leave a comment

An EU-wide hotline number for missing children set up in Brussels two years ago has still not been activated in Ireland. The 116000 phone number was assigned in February 2007 as a fast-track method for reporting a missing child to police in any European member state. But so far the number is operational in only five countries, according to an EU report published this week.
The hotline service has to be assigned by the government to NGOs that must be able to handle calls about a missing child or a case of cross-border parental abduction, free of charge, 24 hours a day. However no organisation in Ireland has offered to host the number yet.
Dublin MEP Proinsias de Rossa has called on COMREG and Communications Minister Eamon Ryan to get the service up and running in Ireland as soon as possible. ‘The EU report highlights the clear benefits of the 116000 number where it has been established; three missing children in Portugal and Belgium were located within minutes of their cases being shown on Portuguese TV over the 116000 number,’ said the Labour MEP.