Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. I thank Senator Burke for raising this matter on the Adjournment as it affords me the opportunity to outline the current position regarding customer services in local authorities. I have certain sympathy with the comments made in respect of local authorities providing full contact details on their websites. For local government to be effective, efficient and focused locally, however, it must be allowed to have a wide level of operational discretion. It is important that all citizens should be able to able to get assistance in services in their area. It is also important that local authority management ensure that elected members have access to the information they need to discharge their responsibilities effectively. If councillors, in particular, are dissatisfied with the level of contact information available to members of the public on a local authority website, I would urge them, as elected members, to bring the matter to the attention of the relevant council.

A local authority's corporate policy group would be the appropriate forum in which to discuss such issues, particularly if elected members are of the view that corporate action plans, customer service charters or citizens' charters require review or indeed the provision of full contact information on council websites. It is a matter in the first instance for each local authority to keep under review its systems and procedures with a view to improving standards of service to the general public and addressing any deficiencies which may come to light at local level.

In this regard, I am advised that a number of local authorities are currently reviewing their customer service charters and actions plans. In reviewing customer service charters and actions plans, local authorities must take into account the resources available to them and information systems put in place must be current, accurate and responsive to local conditions in order to provide effective and efficient services to citizens. The Government is committed to establishing a web-based system to allow residents to report non-emergency problems in their area, with a guaranteed turnaround of two days for a response to be posted on the website. As part of delivering this commitment, South Dublin County Council piloted the FixYourStreet website during the second half of 2011. Members of the public can report problems with street lighting, drainage, graffiti, waste collection and road and path maintenance in their neighbourhoods. I am pleased to report that in excess of 1,700 reports were uploaded to the website during the pilot phase. The average response time of South Dublin County Council to the queries raised was 1.6 days, less than the two working days deadline. This is a creditable performance and illustrates the benefit of flexibility of setting specific standards for specific circumstances. This initiative will be rolled out to other local authorities during 2012 and I expect them to be able to meet the response standards as part of the delivery of better and more efficient services through FixYourStreet.

Efficient and effective service to the public is one of the guiding principles informing the local government reform project and local government efficiency review. The local government efficiency review group, in its report of July 2010, acknowledged the commitment of local authorities to quality customer services.