Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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230. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if there are guidelines, written procedures or protocols or key performance indicators for acknowledgement of correspondence received and response to correspondence received, respectively by category of correspondence (details supplied) in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38249/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to providing a timely response to all correspondence received, be it from T.D.s and Senators or member of the public. It set out a number of detailed customer service commitments in the Department of Social Protection's Customer Charter 2020 – 2022.

This Charter provides a clear commitment to acknowledging all correspondence received from members of the public within a maximum of 3 working days and to respond to correspondence received from members of the public within a maximum of 15 working days. The Charter also provides that where directly corresponding with an individual, Department staff must provide a contact name, telephone number, email address or postal address, so that follow up is made simpler for the individual, should that be required. The Charter is available online at the following link: gov.ie - Customer Charter and Customer Action Plan (www.gov.ie)

In additions, special TD enquiry phonelines are maintained within the Department to facilitate engagement with T.D.s and Senators, to provide factual information or to engage on specific matters relating to T.D. inquiries.