ICT

The Office of the Executive Director of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) was established in July 2008 with the aim of bringing together all of the ICT functions within An Garda Síochána into a single integrated business unit. The main role of the Office is to ensure the effective deployment of ICT systems, services and solutions to support the delivery of the strategic business goals and imperatives as set out in An Garda Síochána's Corporate Business Strategy. 

A large number of policing processes within An Garda Síochána are dependent on ICT. These include:

- The management of the emergency 999 communications control centre

- Incident recording

- E-mail

- Criminal investigations

- Registration of non-EU nationals

- Photographs

- Fingerprints

- Case management

- Character vetting 

In addition to the above functions, ICT is being used in increasingly sophisticated and tactical ways to support the organisation's daily activities. ICT meets this challenge by:

• Strategic planning, including an ongoing industry watch and related opportunity assessments;
• Information modelling of the business and its functions, developing and maintaining the associated data architecture and designing the required system applications and support architecture;
• Providing a Service Desk service to over 16,500 users;
• Agreeing large technical and commercial contracts with the suppliers of Information and Communications Technologies;
• Representing An Garda Síochána on National and International forums.

The office comprises of the following three main ICT functional areas:

IT Operations & Security 

The IT Operations & Security section is responsible for the strategic and tactical planning, operation and deployment of all IT systems within An Garda Síochána. This includes all desktop computing, computer servers, computing software and both bespoke and off-the-shelf computer applications. 

IT Strategy & Planning 

The IT Strategy & Planning section has a lead role in ICT strategy development and is responsible for all applications development of new systems and the maintenance of existing systems. Applications development responsibility covers the design, build and system test of new systems and the support of development environments. In addition, IT planning undertakes a project management role in respect of major new systems from procurement through to implementation. 

Telecommunications

The Garda Telecommunications section is responsible for providing a range of technical support services to An Garda Síochána, mainly in the area of radio communication systems, CCTV Systems, digital telephone systems (PABX), Virtual Private Networks (VPN), video analysis suites for use with Urban CCTV systems and co-ordinating the Cellular Private Network for official issue mobile phones. The section is responsible for design, construction and management of all network and radio links throughout the force. This includes all Wide Area, Analogue and Digital Radio Network connections between Headquarters, Offices, Stations and operational Gardaí in Ireland. The Telecommunications section is also responsible for the maintenance of the Local Area Networks and the management of service level agreements with Service Providers. 

For further information contact:

Office of the Executive Director ICT
Garda Headquarters
Phoenix Park
Dublin 8
D08 HN3X

Tel: +353 1 6661453
Fax: +353 1 6661659
E-mail:ICT_Executive_Director@Garda.ie

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