The Department of the Taoiseach can now be contacted from anywhere in the State for the cost of a local call, or by email. This is part of a quality service initiative announced by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to make the Department more accessible to the public.
The Secretary General of the Department, Mr Paddy Teahon, said yesterday that the Civil Service wants to double "customer satisfaction" within the next two years as a result of the initiative. A survey carried out for the Department showed that only 23 per cent of people who dealt directly with the Civil Service last year felt it was "very efficient". A further 49 per cent thought it "fairly efficient".
In contrast, 15 per cent thought the Civil Service was "fairly inefficient" and 4 per cent thought it "very inefficient". Ten per cent had no opinion.
The Department which had most contact with the public was Social Welfare, which dealt with 13 per cent of all contacts, followed by the Revenue Commissioners, with 10 per cent. Agriculture dealt with 6 per cent of contacts and Health and Education with 5 per cent each.
The Department of the Taoiseach dealt with only 1 per cent. Nevertheless, this still amounted to 200,000 calls a year and 30,000 items of correspondence for Mr Teahon's Department.