The Health Service Executive (HSE) is the national body responsible for public health and social services across Ireland. Among many other services, the organisation plays a key role in Ireland’s handling of people seeking asylum, providing short-term accommodation for new arrivals while applications are processed.

One such HSE facility used to provide accommodation to asylum seekers is known as the Transit Hub, located at Citywest on the outskirts of Dublin. The Transit Hub is used to temporarily house people applying for leave to remain under Ireland’s International Protection (IP) policy, as well as those fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Staff at the Transit Hub use two way radios to communicate across the site. However, the handsets being used were an old Kenwood model that had long since been discontinued, making it difficult and expensive for the site’s management to get technical support if they ever had any problems with the radios.

With efficient coordination and safety key priorities at a site that sees a rapid turnover of people arriving and then being sent on to other accommodation, it was decided that the time for an upgrade was due. The HSE contacted Irish Radio Communications Ltd to ask what we could provide.

Our Solution

Our first step was to carry out a thorough site survey to assess its size and the specific communication requirements staff had there. In particular, after management reported that their old radios would often struggle to pick up signal in certain areas, we carried out extensive testing for signal reach and ‘dead spots’ – areas where radio frequency penetration is poor, often due to the type and layout of buildings etc.

Having completed this assessment, we recommended the Lugra LT5100D to the Transit Hub’s management team. The LT5100D represents a significant upgrade on the legacy analogue radios previously being used while still being an affordable and easy-to-use solution.

A big reason why we picked out the LT5100D is because it operates in both analogue and digital modes. Digital two way radios provide much better signal coverage than analogue, so we were confident the extra range of the LT5100D would solve those problems with signal drop out. At the same time, the fact that the handsets can be switched to analogue means staff at the Transit Hug have the option to keep using their old radios should they wish to, for example as an emergency back up.

Solidly built but lightweight enough not to be a pain to carry, the LT5100D is a great all-rounder that boasts up to 22 hours battery life on a single charge. The Transit Hiub’s leadership team was also impressed by the fact that the it comes with an enormous 256 talk channels, providing huge flexibility for both private and group calls – just what is required in busy environment where several different conversations might be going on at at any one time, some of them sensitive.

The model also comes with useful safety and security features such as emergency alarm, remote monitoring and digital voice recording, providing staff with extra peace of mind as they go about their work.

 Get in touch with our team of experts to find the ideal solution for you – call us on +353 (0)1 450 6666.