An important process to know.
Recently, various news sites outside of the Republic of Ireland reported on what to do if you are in an emergency but cannot speak. The procedure outside of Ireland is to ring 999 as you normally would, and if you cannot speak, you press ”55”.
However, this is not the case in the Republic or Ireland. If you are in an emergency and need to call the emergency services for help, but cannot speak, the process is different.
Instead of pressing “55” at a specific point in the call, the caller is asked to tap their handset screen if they require emergency assistance. If the caller does this, the call will be forwarded to the relevant emergency service instantly.
This means that the caller should go to their keypad on their phone when asked, and press any buttons on the keypad to ensure you are kept on the line and connected to An Garda Siochana.
So if you’re outside of Ireland and in danger be aware how the process is different to when you are within the Republic of Ireland.
