Vol. 540 No. 2
30 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the level of consultation which took place with independent community-based service providers in relation to the content of his Department's publication, Changing for a Changing Ireland; the level of public feedback which has taken place since as a direct result of the magazine; the plans for evaluation of the magazine at his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20092/01]
65 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the cost associated with the publication and delivery of his Department's publication, Changing for a Changing Ireland; the number of copies printed; the number of households which have been given a copy of the magazine to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20091/01]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 30 and 65 together.
The objective of my Department's information policy is to ensure all our citizens are made aware of their entitlements under a broad range of social insurance, social assistance and other supports and are kept informed of changes and improvements as they occur. In line with that policy, my Department has in the past year issued more than 530,000 customised information leaflets to different groups of customers, including pensioners, lone parents, people with disabilities and carers. This initiative has been widely welcomed as an effective means of informing customers of their full entitlements.
As a further initiative my Department has issued a newsletter, Changing for a Changing Ireland, to every household in the country outlining our main schemes and services and the changing role of the Department. My Department worked at local level with a number of organisations in the voluntary and community sector in preparing the newsletter. The issue of this publication was the main project of our national welfare awareness week, which ran from 18 to 23 June this year. The purpose of the week was to highlight the range of social, community and family services that are available to support people “from cradle to grave”.
As part of its customer action plan, my Department seeks feedback from customers on a systematic basis on the quality of service to tailor the delivery of services, including information services, to meet their needs. Customer panels and customer surveys are among the mechanisms which are used for this purpose. The findings of these surveys are, in the main, very positive and show a high satisfaction rating with the services provided. Similar feedback will be sought on the Changing for a Changing Ireland publication and the findings will help to improve the overall provision of information to our customers. It is estimated that the costs including design, printing, postage etc. will be approximately £300,000. Some 1.44 million copies were printed, of which 40,000 were in Irish, and they are in the process of being distributed by An Post to every household in the country.
Over the past four years I have asked the Minister to produce a general information leaflet for households. I commend him on Changing for a Changing Ireland.
One thing which I found disappointing – I know the focus was on family and life events – was its soft focus approach. It was reminiscent of blurbs that came in the past from Departments such as the famous epistle from the former Deputy Ray Burke at the Department of Justice. Why did it not include hard information on all the key schemes and the rates, while still making it readable? As politicians we try to transmit this information to our constituents, but different constituencies do not get that full information. I notice that one of my constituents, Mr. John Finn, is included in it. He has had a remarkable life history.
The Deputy had to mention his constituency programme.
Yes, I wanted to mention it briefly.
I thought there could have been more information on the work of the Department, particularly on the appeals procedure. I know we receive a report, but members of the general public do not. More information about the work would have been appreciated. Does the Department intend to make this a regular, perhaps annual, document?
I appeal to Deputies to abide by Standing Orders. That supplementary question was almost two minutes in length.
I would like to think this would become an annual publication. As regards hard information, I am sure the Deputy knows the book SW4, which is the bible for my Department. It is a very tightly printed and heavy book. I do not believe it could be delivered to every household in the way in which this recent booklet has been delivered.
Could a leaflet with the key rates at each level not be delivered?
The Deputy has to accept that, apart from this booklet, we have put out 530,000 other booklets targeted at different groups. For instance about 350,000 of these booklets were sent to old age pensioners, dealing not only with social welfare issues, but also with tax and health issues. We made a point of using large print and were complimented for that. Much of the print in other documents, like the SW4, would be unreadable for many old age pensioners.
Changing for a Changing Ireland is the first of what I hope will be a number of booklets issued by the Department. We believe it is a good way to disseminate the information. The feedback from the other publications has been excellent and I understand the feedback from this one is in a similar vein. The information is available in the Department's offices. We commissioned the MRBI to conduct a survey recently which showed that 90% of the people who came in contact with our offices were happy with the service they received.
Having read the document, there appears to be cherry-picking of the various schemes mentioned in it. How did the Minister arrive at the position where he deemed it necessary to select some schemes and not others? There is a distinction between information and propaganda. Some of cynics among us might believe that the Government has this endless sum of money it can spend while lauding what it claims to be its achievements in recent years and that this is all in the run-up to a general election.
There is only one page on County Louth.
I noticed that. Was all the work done in-house, so to speak, or were consultants used in the preparation of this publication?
I refer the Deputy to something he said previously indicating a welcome for the fact I would publish one of these documents.
The Minister did not ask me when he would do it.
No, because the Deputy is unlikely to be in government in the foreseeable future.
The Minister should ask the people of south Tipperary.
One swallow does not make a summer.
There have been six swallows in recent years.
I understand consultants were engaged but only in a very small way. Perhaps the Deputy would table a separate question in that respect. There were design costs.
Does that mean the total cost is dearer than £300,000?
No, it includes the design costs which were in thousands.
My copy comes from the south side of Dublin. Most of the areas I represent have not yet received a copy. When is it intended the country as a whole will be covered?
I have not received mine yet either.
I received mine last week.
It will take a few weeks because 1.44 million is a sizeable number.
