I propose to take Questions Nos. 363 and 424 together.
Members of the public may send queries to my Department by e-mail to the following address: information@daff.irlgov.ie.
During the last quarter of 2000, the information office of my Department received 303 e-mail queries, in addition to numerous telephone and written queries. All e-mail queries from the public to my Department are attended to on a daily basis. If a query cannot be answered directly by the information office in which it is first received it is forwarded to the relevant division in the Department or transferred to another Department or State agency as appropriate for a direct reply.
The time-scale for responses to inquiries from the public is set down in the Department's customer service action plan launched in 1998 which sets out specific undertakings including access to services and service delivery standards which all clients can expect in their dealings with my Department, normally within 20 days.
A revised customer service action plan is currently being drawn up and should be published in April 2001.