Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Most of the work on the initiative has gone on over many years. The steering groups involved mainly comprise officials, Secretaries General from the Civil Service and the Revenue Commissioners. They are pressing the initiative out to agencies under the aegis of the Civil Service. They have improved staff training, undertaken modernising public service premises, ensure people are treated with courtesy and dignity and are able to identify who is dealing with what. They have basically followed the principles set down in the customer charter process. The steering groups meet regularly, if not weekly, and press on with improving standards and other matters such as the simplification of forms and dealing with the public in a helpful way. They have made much progress. I accept the Deputy's point is valid, that a member of the public should be able to ring a section and speak to named individuals. I will raise the point made by Deputy Kenny on signatures.

The initiative is being extended to bodies under the aegis of Departments and offices. The OECD review will examine the links between the various sectors, Departments and offices and local government, health and education sectors with a particular focus on delivery of quality public services. The review will be completed this year. A range of meetings have already taken place between key civil servants and the OECD. Various committees have been established, mainly at assistant secretary level, to examine best practice in other countries. Other countries have embarked on these reviews and many models are available, so we will not have to reinvent the wheel. It is therefore a case of opening the Civil Service and forging links to achieve better standards and practices. That process has started at a Government level and should be complete by the end of the year. It will be next year before the OECD report is ready.

I do not have a figure for the buildings. However, I know that last year when we published the sectoral plans for the disabilities lobby, very few Government or public buildings were not covered. There are some specific problems, but most buildings are now readily accessible. One reason for the sectoral plans was to try to eliminate other difficulties, inequalities and deficiencies in Departments and agencies. Those covered everything from buses to health clinics.

Under the sectoral plans there is now a commitment to deal with those issues within a fixed period. Although I cannot remember all the detail, the general view at the meetings was that if the sectoral plans were implemented, that would by and large eliminate the difficulties. While there might be some very old buildings where compliance would be difficult, it would be true of most services, and certainly in the case of all those introduced in recent years. Those are included and offer good access.

Regarding communications, as one goes around public buildings, one always wishes that there might be another way and that officials might deal with people in private rooms rather than talking through screens and barriers, which can be quite intimidating. Of course, staff will give one all sorts of reasons it should be so, but it is not my favourite atmosphere. None of us in the House does that when we have our clinics, at which we must all deal with difficult people on occasion. We do not place barriers between us. It is a little unfortunate, but staff unions and associations are very reluctant to change, since if there are incidents, members are not very receptive to new ideas. They say that they do it where possible, but there are many reasons they cannot.

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