Vol. 529 No. 1
206 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources the arrangements he has in place to respond to e-mail queries to the address posted on the Department's website; the number of e-mail queries received during the last quarter of 2000; the number of these which had not received any response from the Department by 19 January 2001; and if he will make a statement on the adequacy of the system for responding to such e-mail queries. [1953/01]
It is the policy of the Department, in line with its quality customer service action plan, to reply to all e-mails within two weeks. If it is not possible to reply in full within that timeframe, the action plan specifies that an interim reply should be issued. A total of 1,126 e-mails, addressed to the three generic contact addresses listed on the Department's website, were received during the last quarter of 2000. An e-mail is referred, on receipt, to the appropriate division of the Department, and it is the responsibility of that division to ensure the matter is attended to in accordance with the action plan standards. The allocation of funding for e-government projects is currently being negotiated as part of the 2001 revised Estimates.
