Written answers

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Department of Social Protection

Departmental Communications

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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376. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if any telephone calls in or out of her Department are being, or ever have been recorded; if so, if she will provide details of the systems used to record and store such calls; the cost to her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21240/14]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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In the past the Department did not routinely record telephone calls, with the exception of one sensitive area where callers are advised of the situation.

The call recording functionality in question is provided by the Department’s contracted supplier. Calls recorded are stored in a secure environment for 90 days and only a limited number of staff in the area concerned have access to the recordings.

The cost of this service, including the provisioning, recording and storage was €6,465.75 in 2013 and €3,762.50 to date in 2014.

In addition to the system outlined above, the Department assumed responsibility for the National Contact Centre (NCC) in January 2012 following the integration of employment and community services from FÁS. The NCC hosts the Jobs Ireland website, a recruitment website for jobseekers and employers. Employers and jobseekers contact the NCC for the purpose of posting job advertisements and applications.

All incoming calls to the NCC are recorded and all callers are informed that calls are recorded for quality and training purposes. The recording of the telephone calls in the NCC is done using the “Customer Interaction Centre (CIC)” product from Interaction Intelligence. The recordings are kept as data files on a local server located in the NCC. As the recording system is an integral part of the telephone system itself, there is no separate charge for this recording service.

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