Vol. 489 No. 6
540 Mr. M. Kitt asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the areas of his Department that use answering machines; the savings involved in each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8742/98]
Answering machines are not in general use throughout the Department. However, there are a number of areas where answering machines are used, for example, press office, internal audit, library, employee assistance office. It is not possible to identify savings arising from the deployment of answering machines.
The Department seeks to ensure the best service to telephone callers by improving and integrating its internal telephone network through automatic call forwarding and other advanced features.
The Department is evaluating the use of telephone answering facilities available through the public telephone network.
