Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No, I do not think it was. It just happened around 2016. I will have to check that out again and come back to the Deputy on it.

In relation to the point raised by Deputy Tóibín, I do not have a figure here in terms of how many people within the public service are working remotely. There was during the pandemic a general view that if we could facilitate off-site working, obviously for public health objectives at the time, we should do so. That was achieved but workers are now returning to work. I will endeavour to get some assessment for the Deputy in respect of the numbers and the situation in terms of how many staff members are availing of remote working, how many are coming back to the office and what type of pattern will emerge into the future in terms of how many days are worked in office and how many days are worked out of office.

I will follow up on the Deputy's point regarding phone calls being directed to key staff. It is a reasonable point that there is a need to get access to public servants who are in decision-making mode or who can answer or respond to a query, as opposed to getting an answering machine. There are other mechanisms, as all present are aware, in terms of seeking responses on issues or in terms of information that Deputies may seek from given Departments. That should be readily available. Departments generally take a proactive approach in that regard. For example, the Department of Social Protection, Revenue and others provide information up front on websites and so on. That will continue to be the case. It is also the approach in terms of publishing strategy documents and so on.

As regards the final point raised by the Deputy, I am not aware of the specific position. I do not employ a PR consultant in my Department.

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