asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the number of complaints received by the Post Office Users' Council since their creation; and if he has any plans to expand their terms of reference and appoint a full-time secretariat.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Post Office Users' Council.
25.
Since their creation in November, 1974, the Post Office Users' Council have referred approximately 300 complaints to my Department for examination.
The council's initial period of office will come to an end this month and I propose to consider further the council's terms of reference in conjunction with the question of the appointment for the next period.
The council have a full-time secretariat.
Can the Minister give any indication of how many of the 300 complaints relate to the postal service as opposed to the telephone service?
Complaints in relation to the postal service would be very much less.
Has the Minister the number of the percentage?
No, but it is very much less.
Since some doubt was expressed recently in some quarters, could I ask the Minister for his personal assurance that he sees a role for a body such as the council and that he will support that role by reappointing a council of this nature to carry on the type of work this body are doing?
Yes.
And possibly giving it room for expansion if the need is there?
The whole matter is being considered.
Am I right in thinking the Minister has until next month only?
That relates to the appointments, but the question of the constitution of the council is being considered.
Does the Minister see them as having a valuable and useful role to play?
I do.
Could I ask the Minister——
We have had several supplementaries on that localised question. It is not a question of the Chair going around every Deputy and permitting him his share of supplementary questions. We want to get questions answered at Question Time in some quantity which will meet Deputies' requirements.
We are not doing too badly. In the 20th Dáil, frequently we ended up the hour with only 12 or 13 questions answered. I have not asked a question on this matter yet. With respect, it is not a local issue. With your permission, Sir, I want to ask the Minister whether the Post Office Users' Council reckon in the figures they give the Minister only the complaints directly sent to them or whether they take account also, according as they run across them, of complaints which turn up in letters to the editor, in leading articles in newspapers, and so forth, and report on them to the Minister. I imagine only a very small fraction of people annoyed by the telephone service would sit down and write to the council.
It is quite possible that sufficient people do not know about the operations of the council and, for that reason, I have agreed that information should be made available in post offices as to their functions, what their address is, and so on. I cannot say exactly whether they are concerned only with letters coming to them. They sent on to us the number of complaints I mentioned. Quite possibly other complaints are made to them which they would not regard as being such as should be forwarded to the Department. They would decide that themselves.
I am sure the Minister would agree the 300 complaints he mentioned must be only the tip of the iceberg. There would be 300 telephone subscribers in the smallest town in Ireland who would have complaints about the service.
This is a relatively new type of body. To date, most people make their complaints to Deputies and others in public life. For that reason it is quite possible that the number was smaller than it might normally be.
A piece of useless Coalition window dressing.
Is that the official Government view?
That is not what the Minister's colleague said.
Is that the official Government's view?
Is the Deputy cross-examining me?
Yes.
An irresponsible statement.
The remaining questions will appear on the Order Paper for the next sitting day.