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Public Service Contracts

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 March 2013

Wednesday, 20 March 2013

Questions (224)

Pearse Doherty

Question:

224. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance if consideration was given to the outsourcing of a call centre to a private company to deal with calls relating to the local property tax; if the cost of such a centre was estimated at €4.9 million; if it was intended that calls taken by that centre would then be processed back to Revenue; if he still intends to proceed with plans for a private call centre; if a direct call number has been established for local property tax queries; and the number of personnel who have been assigned to answering calls. [13992/13]

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Written answers

I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the introduction of the Local Property Tax (LPT), amounting, as it does, to the largest extension of the self-assessment system in the history of the State, represents a very great administrative challenge for Revenue. As a new service that will have exceptional temporary pressures at particular stages of its initial implementation it proved difficult to predict the level of contact that would arise during its introduction and, consequently, the resource required to meet customer service demands. Revenue considered a number of options for the provision of a phone call service and estimated the cost of providing the service needed to meet the anticipated demands taking account of a number of resource options. These included the use of existing Revenue resources only; the recruitment of Temporary Clerical Officers (TCOs) for their 1890 service; the outsourcing of the entire service and a mix of existing staff, TCOs and external resources. Revenue chose the final option outlined, a mix of external and internal resources.

The service was initiated on 7 March, the contact number is 1890 200 255 and it operates on the basis that calls are handled by the service provider in the first instance. Complex matters that cannot be handled by the service provider are escalated to a team of Revenue staff. The call management and reporting systems are monitored by Revenue and also the actual delivery of the service. The number of staff allocated to the call centre service, both in Revenue and externally will vary in response to the levels of demand, but for the Deputy’s information, current indicative numbers are 40 external staff with up to 27 Revenue staff available as required.

The outsourcing of peak call handling in respect of the LPT will ensure that skilled Revenue staff can continue to provide the necessary customer service to meet their long term, on-going demands and commitments in relation to the strategic priority of maintaining and improving levels of tax and duty compliance. It meets the specific and unusual need which has arisen in the context of the roll out of the new tax. It might also be noted that, following a full hearing, the Civil Service Arbitration Board determined that the proposal to outsource this service is entirely consistent with provisions of the national agreements on the provision of outsourced services, including specific provisions in Towards 2016 and the Public Service Agreement 2010-2014.

The €4.9 million figure quoted by the Deputy does not represent the estimate of the cost of the outsourced call centre service. This figure was Revenue’s estimate of the total cost of providing a service using internal and external resources. The nature of the contract is that the cost will depend on the volume of calls handled, but I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that it is expected to be very much lower than the figure quoted by the Deputy. I am further informed that in accordance with the relevant Government decision, the Revenue Commissioners publish quarterly lists of payments over €20,000 and payments made under this contract will be included in future lists.

The proposal to address the simpler LPT queries through the outsourcing of limited call services offers a flexible, scalable response to an unpredictable demand. It will also provide assurance that the introduction of LPT will not damage Revenue’s overall capacity to deliver for the Exchequer and for the Irish people, an important consideration at any time and vital in the current economic circumstances.

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