Ms Angela Black:

In the greater Dublin area, we have 33 offices in Dublin, 15 of which are MABS and 18 of which are citizens information services. I would say one of our busiest offices is probably the one in the centre of Dublin in O'Connell Street. Equally, those in the largest urban areas - Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway - would all be very busy offices. I do not want to single out any. There was mention of Navan earlier. I happen to know that it is an extremely busy office and, therefore, I have probably left out a lot. In big towns, it is big business. Part of the reason it is big business is that we pride ourselves on giving independent information, advice and advocacy. We do not affiliate ourselves with any grouping, any political agenda or anything like that.

I also think that part of the reason it is difficult to maximise on the footfall online is because people have so many channels through which to ask a question. For some people, using the citizens information service is a way not to use a politician's constituency office. For others, it is the precursor to going in to a politician anyway. We cannot second guess why people would come in to us first, but we do try to promote it. However, we would have no problem in promoting independent, neutral approaches to get answers to questions from any member of the public. I do not know whether my colleagues have anything to add.