Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Niall Crowley of the Equality Authority chaired the equality and diversity sub-group in the past. That sub-group assisted in the preparation of the support pack for equality and diversity aspects of all the QCS, which was issued to all Departments and offices. That sub-group also advised on the working and commission of the research group on equality and diversity issues. That was circulated to Departments and offices. Equality issues are also included by Departments and offices in the production of their customer charters and customer action plans. That is the broad issue of equality.

On the issue of accessibility, a direction was given some years ago to all Departments and agencies to have wheelchair accessibility. I do not have a figure covering Departments and agencies, but all the major Departments at that time, about six or seven years ago, undertook a fair amount of construction work, with the installation of wheelchair lifts, and other work to deal with the issue. I do not know if it is the case in every single agency but it certainly is in all the main Departments. The work includes toilets and other areas such as side doors, where a number of difficulties arose because some entrances were impossible to ramp.

Although not applying to every Department, this year the sectoral plans, published in July following consultation with the National Disability Authority, set out what was to happen in the wider public service, such as transport. To the best of my knowledge, there was no question on disability in the survey. If that was the case, I will raise it in time to obtain a figure in the next survey, which should be easy to do.

The Deputy's second question was on what the QCS groups were endeavouring to do. They are endeavouring to make use of the benefits of technology across the Departments to make it easier for people to access information. The big issue surrounds night-time availability, in addition to the service provided during the day, such as exists for motor taxation, which is a hugely popular service with the public. Farmers' schemes also exist, which the agricultural community uses a lot. An e-payment system will come in from 1 January 2007 so that almost all payments will be made using technology. All the time the service is building up its capacity to use technology.

Most of these developments are taking place under the encouragement of QCS groups in Departments. The service is constantly extending the use of technology so that people can fill in forms electronically. Some areas have not been able to make such good progress but for the most part, across the service, technology is being used to make services more accessible and to offer a 24-hour service so that people can access them any time of the night or at weekends.

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