Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour)
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166. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will extend the opening hours of the Revenue Commissioners' information office in Dublin 1 from 8.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. to 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43951/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that, as the Deputy has mentioned, the Central Revenue Information Office (CRIO) which is located at O'Connell St/Cathedral St, Dublin 1 is open from 8.30am to 4pm each day. The morning opening time of 8.30am has been in place since 2008, and in response to customer demand trends that saw the majority of customers calling to the office in the early morning. This trend has continued, and the early opening ensures that there is no build up of queues and consequent delays once the doors open.

As with any modern service provider, the Deputy will appreciate that good business practice requires Revenue to constantly review the delivery of services to ensure that they can facilitate peaks and troughs in demand levels, as well as changing customer preferences for the way in which they wish to carry out their transactions with Revenue. Revenue will therefore continue to monitor and evaluate customer demands in relation to the CRIO. The Deputy can be assured that a flexible and responsive approach will be taken in the event of changes in demand levels. However, Revenue is confident that the service that the Office currently provides is meeting the current demand level from customers in the Dublin area who wish to carry out their business on a face-to-face basis with Revenue.

The key objective of the Central Revenue Information Office (CRIO, is the provision of a best-practice, speedy and efficient service for customers. The Office therefore has a range of state-of-the-art systems in place to facilitate a high quality service. For example, the CRIO has:

- a reception area that deals very quickly with callers who have non-transactional enquiries, such as basic information requests. The enquiries of some 66% of callers to the CRIO are dealt with in this area;

- the availability of computers whereby customers can carry out their transactions on a self-service basis. CRIO staff are available to provide guidance on the use of Revenue's self-service systems, PAYE Anytime and the Revenue On-line Service (ROS), if required by customers;

- a modern electronic queue management system that ensures that queuing times are kept to a minimum for those customers who need to proceed to the counter;

- counter facilities that allow many customer transactions to be carried out on-the-spot;

- a dedicated team of experienced expert staff who can deal with the wide range of enquiries received in the Office.