Vol. 517 No. 6
369 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the sections of the Department which restrict the time available to take calls form the public; the length of time this has been ongoing; the nature of the restrictions; the proposals, if any, he has to remedy this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10761/00]
I can inform the Deputy that most divisions in my Department and offices-agencies operating under the aegis of my Department do not operate a time restriction policy on the availability of staff to take calls from the public during their normal office hours. However, there are two exceptions which are set out below.
Prior to the beginning of November 1999 the citizenship division of my Department operated a telephone helpline which was available between the hours of 10 a.m. and 12 p.m., Monday to Friday. At present, this service is available between the hours of 10 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday and it appears to be operating satisfactorily. It was felt that the revised hours would be adequate to deal with queries from the public and that this would be less disruptive to the division, thus allowing more time for the processing of applications which is obviously its key function. During the coming months, the situation will be monitored with the view to revising the situation, if necessary.
The visa section of my Department operates a visa helpline on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. This enables staff resources during other times to be devoted exclusively to processing applications with a view to keeping processing time to a minimum, given that a visa is often required at short notice. The arrangement is, however, being kept under review having regard to the availability of resources and the volume of applications received.
