Mr. Ger Deering:

Yes, I would say communication is at the heart of an awful lot of the complaints that we get, or indeed lack of communication. We are very strong ourselves on putting out our own telephone number and saying to people that if they need to ring us, they can ring us, for the very reason the Deputy has outlined. Not just in the public sector but in the private sector also, if you go on a website it is almost impossible to find a telephone number to contact somebody. We would expect public bodies to make themselves accessible and to be as accessible as possible.

The short answer to the question is that many of the complaints we receive have to do with some form of poor communication. We also deal with what we call a non-response to correspondence. This is where someone has contacted a Department or a public body and received no response. We engage with them and get a response on the person's behalf.