Vol. 517 No. 6
132 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources 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. [10751/00]
No section of the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources restricts the times during which telephone calls from members of the public are answered. I have no plans to restrict services to the public in any area of the Department.
A limited telephone service was in operation in the forest service division, Wexford, from 21 January 1999 to 6 March 2000. The main telephone lines operated in the morning only, so that staff would have an opportunity in the afternoon to concentrate on eliminating backlogs that arose during the decentralisation of staff to Wexford. The decision to restrict these services was widely advertised in the national and industry media. Staff gave direct dial telephone numbers to customers during this period and inward calls from the public to such telephone numbers were answered in the normal manner. Following the elimination of the backlog and the introduction of better systems to assist staff in processing grants and premia payments, full telephone services were restored in March this year.
