Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 11 Apr 2000

Vol. 517 No. 6

Written Answers. - Departmental Services.

Gay Mitchell

Question:

429 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Education and Science 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. [10763/00]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods):

Four sections in my Department are currently limiting the service that can be provided directly to telephone callers on an ongoing basis. The sections involved are teachers' pensions section, the student support unit, primary payments section and the post primary building unit.

In each case, the limitation of service takes the form of dealing directly with telephone enquiries only for a set number of hours per day. At other times during the day, callers receive information from a recorded message. The restrictions in the student support unit, post primary building unit and primary payments section commenced in 1999. The restrictions were introduced in pensions section in September 1997 and were notified to teachers at the outset.

Other sections in my Department have placed occasional restrictions on telephone answering services from time to time to deal with bottlenecks in the workload. These restrictions have tended to be limited in scope and short in duration. For example, teachers' salaries sections have occasionally found it necessary to divert telephones to an answering service on the day before a critical payroll deadline, particularly where salary arrears payments were being made.

These restrictions are used as a last resort because the volume of queries being received by telephone leaves little time available to staff to process claims, written correspondence and other work. Naturally, I am not happy with any diminution of service to the public and I am keeping the situation under review with a view to eliminating the need to have any restrictions placed on telephone services to the public.