Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 374: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the opening hours of his Department's public offices and public telephone lines and if they close for lunch; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32058/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The majority of Social Welfare Local Offices are open to the public from 9.30am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, including lunch hours. Some Local Offices, including Social Welfare Branch Offices, do not open during lunch hour as it would not be feasible given their customer base and the small number of staff working in them. The majority of Social Welfare Local Offices do however provide a phone service from 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., including lunch hour, each week day.

My Department's main phone switch board (01-8748444) operates from 8.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m., Monday to Friday, including lunch hours. The public phone lines for my Department's Social Welfare Service headquarter offices operate in the main from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, including lunch hours.

There are some minor variations such as the Letterkenny Social Welfare Services office which operates from 9.15 a.m. to 5.15 p.m. through lunch each week day. As a temporary measure the phone service in the Child Benefit EU section, which primarily deals with claims in respect of children resident outside Ireland, is available from 10 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. to 4.00 p.m. each week day. These reduced hours are to allow staff to concentrate on clearing the large numbers of such applications received over the last 18 months.

My Department's LoCall Information Line (1890 66 22 44) is available 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day Monday to Friday. Additionally, customers can get information on schemes and services from the Citizens Information Phone Service (LoCall 1890 777 121) each week day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Information in relation to all my Department's schemes and services is also available 24 hours a day from the Department's website www.welfare.ie, and from the Citizens Information website www.citizensinformation.ie.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 375: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the opening hours for the public offices and telephone lines and if they close for lunch for each of the agencies and State bodies that are under the control of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32073/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The five statutory agencies operating under the aegis of my Department are the Pensions Board, the Combat Poverty Agency, the Citizens Information Board (formerly Comhairle), the Family Support Agency and the Social Welfare Tribunal. In addition the Pensions Ombudsman comes under the remit of my Department.

The Information requested by the Deputy is set out on the schedule.