Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I pay tribute to Senators McGahon and Horkan for their very sincere tributes. I pay tribute to the late Mr. David Hill and to both Senators, who I know have been very shaken by the events. Our thoughts are with them as well. We thank them for their solidarity here today. We send our deepest sympathies to the Hill family.

I ask that we have a debate on customer care and customer service. I ask that we also have a look at the role of the Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg. If we are to be honest, all of us as public representatives and the people who we work for and with are having a nightmare in dealing with a multiplicity of departments of agencies around customer care and customer service. It is high time we call halt to the shoddy treatment of people by a myriad of Government Departments, semi-State companies and public bodies for the way in which they treat people.In particular, let us reflect upon those elderly people who put pay money to put credit in their phones and dial a company yet are made to wait an hour or two and their credit dwindles out of their account. In the old days one could press button B and get one's money back but today one is given the option of pressing buttons 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 but will only be connected to someone else. People are sick and tired that there is no accountability and no customer care or service. There was a time when the customer was always right. Sadly, customer care has been outsourced to call centres, which is a situation that needs to be re-examined and looked at by a multiplicity of agencies, bodies and companies. I ask for a debate to be arranged and suggest that we bring in the communications regulator to speak to us because the way people are being treated now is unacceptable. People cannot get answers to basic simple questions yet at the same time companies fob people off. I hope that the treatment of people and customer care can be prioritised. We saw Covid used as an excuse and it was said that people were working from home but now people are moving back into their offices so there can be no excuse for the shoddy treatment of people around customer care. I ask that the Leader facilitates a debate at her earliest convenience.