Vol. 463 No. 6
241 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will consider making a freephone service available to the general public who require to make contact with his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6967/96]
My Department provides a freephone service to the public from time to time for specific purposes. A recent example was the provision of a Social Welfare Budget Information Freephone service, which was available for two weeks from 19 January to facilitate people inquiring about changes to social welfare schemes. A freephone facility is currently being provided to enable people or organisations contact the Commission on the Family, which is sponsored by my Department.
The provision of a general freephone service for all calls to the Department would be expensive.
The Department already makes extensive use of telephone facilities provided by the Government Telecommunications Network (GTN). For instance, persons wishing to contact one of the decentralised offices of the Department at Longford, Sligo or Letterkenny can do so by either calling those offices directly or if it is cheaper to do so, by calling the Department's main number in Dublin and having the call relayed without additional costs.
A number of options for the further improvement of telephone facilities for members of the public are being considered as part of a major telecommunications project within the Department.
