Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I said last week at the IBEC HR conference that there is a need to consider introducing more flexibility in how we deal with customers. I gave three examples, local authorities, the education service and the health service. I said this means more flexible hours, more flexible working weeks and more flexible systems, and I stand over that. I was not talking about the health sector because it applies equally to all parts of the public sector. The three examples I mentioned in my contribution and when answering questions were local government, education and the central Civil Service. These improvements are being made. Many public offices now stay open for longer hours, through lunchtime and earlier and later in the day. Customers are being facilitated in this way. This is a major change from the way the service operated only a few years ago.

We must make progress in that regard. As I said last week, at a time when the levels of investment in terms of capital expenditure and equipment, are historically high, we need to ensure that there is flexibility in working patterns, and there is nothing new in this. The issue arose in the social partnership and the relevant section in the partnership spells out that we have to facilitate the work of organisations to provide improved customer service delivery. There are needs in certain areas for changes in HRM practices to provide services outside the work that is regarded as traditional.

I did not mention any category of health staff, but nurses already work 24 hours a day so they would be excluded from this change. There are sections in the health services which I did not mention that are open for only six or seven hours a day and have very costly equipment. I repeat the point that they should be open longer.

Much of what the customer service group put forward is already happening in local authorities, for example, in the motor taxation division, in the Revenue Commissioners and the agricultural payment schemes. They are all large sections. I forget the percentage but the on-line motor taxation registration is a high proportion of the overall figure. The agricultural payments scheme has gone from a very low proportion of on-line business to a high one.

The Revenue Commissioners have been doing this for several years and will extend it to the PAYE sector, which is a large sector. From January the e-payments system for the public service will go to a new level. While it has promoted e-payments for the past few years, it will go almost totally on-line. The service is rolling out the system and constantly uses technology to try to improve the services. The benefit is that it is possible for people to use the service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, although the staff are not there all that time. People are doing their transactions at home in the evenings and at weekends, which the service can then pick up. The public has taken to this to an even greater extent than was envisaged five years ago.

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