Vol. 473 No. 6
298 Dr. O'Hanlon asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications the responsibility, if any, he has for the implementation of the code of practice for the delivery of service to customers of commercial State companies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2221/97]
Primary responsibility for the implementation of the recently published code of practice for the delivery of services to customers of commercial State companies rests with the State companies themselves as it is an agreed voluntary code of practice. My colleague Deputy Doyle, as Minister of State at my Department, has special responsibility for customers of public services and was the driving force behind this recent initiative.
In addition to their commitment to the recently published code of practice, the commercial State companies for which I have responsibility also have agreed to include a customer service section in their annual reports and to report annually to my Department on their customer service programmes.
In addition, my Department's statement of strategy, which will be published shortly, will highlight the importance of the issue of customer service, both within the Department itself and also in each of the commercial State companies.
