David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 471: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of people who work on the lo-call number for information regarding pensions in his Department; if the staff have targets regarding the time it takes to deal with the public who ring the helpline; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that many elderly people wait inordinate lengths of time to get through to the information officers; the steps he intends to take to improve this customer service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10716/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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In dealing with telephone inquiries, the aim of my Department is to ensure that all inquiries made to any of the Department's lo-call numbers are answered quickly, competently, courteously and with due regard to the needs of the callers. The pensions services office in Sligo administers a number of schemes, including old age contributory and non-contributory pension and retirement pension, and there is a specific lo-call number which may be used to make inquiries about any of the schemes administered from this office.

There is currently a total of 16 staff assigned to the dedicated phone banks in the office to deal with inquiries made via the lo-call number. There is a target in place which stipulates that calls should be answered within 30 seconds. Available statistics indicate that these targets are met in general. However, there can be delays at times when the service is particularly busy, for example, after budget announcements and in the run-up to Christmas and similar times of high pressure.

The position regarding phone response is kept under ongoing review and as part of the extension of the Department's service delivery modernisation, SDM, programme later this year, further improvements to the telephone service are planned. An additional lo-call number and additional telephone answering staff will be provided for the retirement and old age contributory pension sections, and a team of back-up phone answering staff will be available to provide support when call volumes are very high. The telephone service will continue to be kept under review and appropriate improvements will continue to be made as circumstances permit.