My presentation is comprised of a number of slides. I will go through these briefly because many of them are merely for information purposes. I hope to provide a sense of the nature of the organisation's work.
Our statutory obligations are set out in the Comhairle Act 2000 and the Citizens Information Act 2007. The latter Act was responsible for, first, changing our name from Comhairle and, second, giving us responsibility for advocacy services for people with disabilities. Our grant allocation for 2008 is €30.954 million. I have provided for members, on the relevant slide, a breakdown of the areas in which this money is spent.
We have four strategic priorities under our strategic plan. The first of these relates to integrated information. The core business of the organisation is the production of high-quality, customer-focused information on all aspects of social and civil services, with an emphasis on meeting the needs of people.
Our website, www.citizensinformation.ie, is simple and clear, providing information under 14 categories relating to life events and corresponding issues. Our content management system involves open source technology. The content is authored in-house but we obtain assistance from specialists and experts. The website is easy to navigate. In e-government terms, the website was cited in 2007’s Cap Gemini report as “best practice within the EU and has been ranked at the highest level of the assessment model”.
Co-ordination and the avoidance of duplication are extremely important to the Citizens Information Board, CIB, in the context of the information it provides. In the production of such information, we work with Departments, agencies and voluntary bodies. The aim is to produce the information once but to have it used many times in different ways.
Our second strategic priority is service delivery. The core of our service delivery involves a three-channel approach using our website, our telephone service and our citizens information services. In 2007, there were 1.85 million unique users of our website, almost 109,000 callers to the telephone service and approximately 613,000 people contacted our 42 citizens information services.
People use our website because it is easy to navigate and it is simple to obtain the information being sought. We try to include on the website information relating to every area in respect of which it might be required. The website is used by members of the public, information providers and service providers in the statutory and voluntary sectors.
On e-exclusion, we are very conscious of those who are not included. Under a recent initiative, we put in place kiosks in 20 of our citizens information services. The idea behind this is that not only will people have access to the website but they also will be able to avail of assistance from staff at the centres to allow them to come to grips with what is involved.
One of advantages of our telephone services is that it is available, Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. As with the citizens information services, the citizens information telephone service is a voluntary organisation — a company limited by guarantee, with a board representative of the voluntary, public and private sectors. One of the slides provided gives a breakdown, in percentage terms and by region, of the calls received. The telephone service sets out to meet people's needs in different ways. The Citizens Information Board was established in the context of mainstreaming services for people with disabilities. We are always conscious, therefore, of the need for accessibility. Some of the alternative channels are very much directed towards those who are deaf. I refer, for example, to the video link with interpretive service, the live on-line adviser and the text messaging service.
On the face-to-face service, there are 42 citizens information services throughout the country. Again, these are all companies that are limited by guarantee and their boards are representative of voluntary and statutory agencies. In addition to paid staff, more than 1,000 volunteers and community employment workers help to provide the service. Services are provided at more than 260 locations throughout the country. There are 54 full-time, 52 part-time and 162 outreach services. The busiest single location is the centre in O'Connell Street, Dublin. The profile of users can vary substantially from location to location. For example, a high percentage of foreign nationals use the O'Connell Street centre.
While the categories of queries have changed, the highest number of queries have always been received in respect of matters relating to social welfare. At one point, such queries accounted for 40% plus of the overall number. Now, however, the figure stands at approximately 33%. Approximately 20% of queries relate to employment rights and employment issues. This figure has risen in recent years. With regard to co-ordination, we try to work with a number of agencies — a list of which is provided — to enable them to provide the specialist services people may require when they arrive at the premises of a citizens information service.
I have provided information on our initiatives and the publications we issue. Members may be aware of some of the latter. For example, RELATE, one of our information publications, has been around for some time and is produced on a monthly basis.
Our third strategic priority relates to advocacy and social policy development. We take a three-strand approach in this regard. Under this, we consider the development of projects in the community and voluntary sector, the personal advocacy service and the community visitors programme. The first strand of this was initiated in 2004. There are 47 projects currently in train, 17 of which were initiated in 2007. The first meeting with those responsible for these projects, in the context of the formalisation of procedures, is taking place today. I have provided information for members regarding some of these advocacy projects.
The personal advocacy service is dealt with in detail under the Citizens Information Act. To date, the post of director has been advertised. The service will be provided directly by the Citizens Information Board and will be aimed at those who are most vulnerable. It is closely linked to the Disability Act and to the process relating to the assessment of needs. The first piece of the puzzle will be the filling of the director post. We are awaiting approval in respect of a small core staff to enable us to establish the service.
Strategic priority 4 is about enhancing accessibility to information advice and advocacy services and we have taken a number of initiatives. Our guidelines are outlined at the bottom of that page. We have taken a range of initiatives over the years regarding people with disabilities because we are very conscious of disability, given that we subsumed the National Social Services Board and the National Rehabilitation Board. A number of the initiatives were implemented in conjunction with disability organisations.
With regard to the information age and older people, we took a substantial initiative in 2007, which included issuing an information booklet to all social welfare pensioners in the State. We also have the Border Wise project. The most recent is January 2007 to June 2008 but we have worked on a cross-Border basis with Citizens Advice Northern Ireland since early 2000. A range of initiatives has been taken.
Foreign nationals have become a substantial part of our business. We commissioned research and we are drawing up an action plan, which is a focus for the year. Assist Ireland is a database of more than 6,000 products to assist people with disabilities in their daily living. Page 17 contains a slide on the sign language interpretation service, for which the board has responsibility under the Department of Social and Family Affairs sectoral plan. It became operational in April 2007 but it is still in its early days and has a number of challenges to meet.
The next slide deals with accredited training. The quality of service depends very much on the people who deliver it and training is important. The final slide concerns customer feedback. We take a range of initiatives to listen to our customers to enable us to constantly adjust our services to meet their needs.