Members of the public and business people believe the Civil Service to be efficient, trustworthy and fair, according to a Government-sponsored opinion poll whose results will be published today by the Taoiseach.
Mr Ahern will urge Government Departments to initiate further improvements to how they deal with the public. He will make his comments in a speech to a conference in Dublin on the Civil Service's relationship with the public, at which the survey results will be published.
Some 79 per cent of private citizens who contacted the Civil Service in the past 12 months were very or fairly satisfied with the service they received, according to the poll conducted last month by Lansdowne Market Research. Just 9 per cent were very or fairly dissatisfied, with 10 per cent having no opinion.
Businesspeople have almost as positive a view of the service, with some 71 per cent very or fairly satisfied and just 16 per cent very or fairly dissatisfied while 13 per cent have no opinion.
Some 58 per cent of the public and 48 per cent of the business community believe the service to be very or fairly efficient. Just 9 per cent of the public and 23 per cent of business people believe it is very or fairly inefficient. Some 33 per cent of the public and 31 per cent of business people have no opinion.
However the poll shows there is a lot of work to be done to encourage the use of electronic communication between individuals and Government offices. Some 80 per cent found the telephone a fairly or very convenient way to communicate with the Civil Service; 67 per cent found writing very or fairly convenient; 38 per cent said this about making a personal visit; but just 27 per cent found e-mail convenient and 25 per cent said visiting a web site was convenient.
Business people find electronic communication much more convenient with 63 per cent saying this about e-mail and 56 per cent saying it about web sites.
The public also agreed strongly that the Civil Service was bureaucratic; had become more customer focused over the past five years; was independent, trustworthy and fair; had personnel who were friendly and helpful; and had good complaints procedures.
However there was significant minority support for statements that it was difficult to get necessary information from Civil Service departments and offices and that it was an old-fashioned organisation.
Some 76 per cent of business people agreed the Civil Service was bureaucratic.
The poll of the public was conducted among a nationally representative sample of 1,200 people. The poll among business people was conducted through telephone interviews with 300 senior managers or directors of businesses. Both polls were conducted last month.