Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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232. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the reason this Deputy has not received a full reply to a letter of 15 June 2016 (details supplied) in relation to the draining of the Dunkellin river; the number of other pieces of correspondence dating from that date or before that have not yet been responded to by the Office of Public Works; the policy of his Department in relation to replying to correspondence from Members of the Oireachtas; if a speedy response with substantive replies to the public and public representatives is part of the reform of public services for which his Department was formed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10735/17]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I am advised by my officials in OPW that the delay in issuing a substantive response to the Deputy’s letter dated the 15th of June 2016 in relation to the Dunkellin flood relief scheme is regretted and was due to an oversight on the part of the Flood Risk Management Section which had responsibility of drafting a reply to the query in question. This area of the Office receives a very high number of representations which it endeavours to answer as quickly as possible but the high number of representations may have contributed to the correspondence being overlooked on this occasion. A substantive reply to the correspondence will issue in the next few days.

I have asked my officials in OPW to ensure that, into the future, every effort is made to respond to representations and correspondence in general in a timely manner and as detailed in OPW’s Customer Action Plan 2017-2019. As part of the plan which is due for publication in the coming weeks OPW sets out the following standards in relation to correspondence:

- Acknowledge all written enquiries and non-routine correspondence within one week of receipt;

- Aim to provide a more comprehensive reply to at least 95% of such correspondence within 20 working days;

- Use clear and simple language and keep technical/official terms and acronyms to a minimum;

- On request, provide you with a contact name, telephone number, fax number, email address and where applicable, a reference or file number;

- Send any correspondence received by us which is a matter for another Department or Agency to them immediately, and notify you of this course of action;

- Ensure that correspondence is answered in whichever of the official languages it is received.

OPW has also included these standards in their Customer Charter which is a short statement describing the levels of service customers can expect when dealing with OPW.