Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I share Deputy Smith's concerns. It is incredibly frustrating for people who have a legitimate query and cannot find somewhere to bring it. I welcome the fact the Office of the Ombudsman advertises its phone number. I know I am not alone in having a large number of people coming to my constituency office who say all they wanted was to talk to a person, and that if they could speak to a person they could explain the situation. In the vast majority of cases people can tick A, B and C, when a question is asked an answer is given, and a chatbot might work. For people who have a query which is even slightly complicated or a tiny bit different to the 99% of queries, it is deeply frustrating. I agree with Deputy Smith that we should examine this as a committee. It is a huge issue. It is not good enough for people who might not have access to broadband or have the necessary skills, or who do not want to learn or may not be in a position to learn, and should not have to learn simply because they want access to a public service. This is something we will definitely take on board.