Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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79. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the locations of all offices and buildings either owned or used by his Department or by public bodies and agencies that operate under his remit which are usually open to the public to access services. [44910/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Accommodation for my Department and its Offices is provided by the Office of Public Works (OPW) in buildings which are either State owned or leased by the OPW on our behalf.

The nature of the work of my Department means we have minimal direct in-person interaction with members of the public in our buildings and accordingly we have no public offices in the Department. The vast bulk of dealings by the Department with the general public are conducted by phone, email or via dedicated online portals specific to the services being sought.

In relation to the Offices of my Department, the primary “face-to-face” onsite interaction with the public as we continue to transition back safely to our buildings is predominately undertaken by the Labour Court and the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) mainly at Lansdowne House, Dublin 4. This is a state-owned property overseen by the OPW. Much of this work throughout the pandemic was conducted in a virtual setting but we are now seeing a safe and phased return to in-person onsite meetings. Such interactions typically involve discussions involving the Labour Court and WRC with employers, unions and individual workers on a wide range of industrial relations and employment rights issues.

The WRC also has regional locations in Carlow, Cork, Ennis and Sligo and again, given the nature of the work involved, do engage in in-person interactions across the regions.

Other Offices, such as the Companies Registrations Office (CRO) and the Intellectual Property Office of Ireland have moved more and more of their operations online over recent years as part of the public sector reform process.

The CRO Public Office closed in March 2020 in the initial phase of COVID-19 restrictions and has not reopened. Since the closure of the Public Office the CRO moved to a new IT system where close to 90% of submissions to the CRO are now online. The vast majority of the remaining submissions are received by post. Searches can be done online and there is no need for anyone to attend the Public Office to request information. The CRO is currently reviewing the position in relation to the Public Office and a decision will be made shortly.

Similarly the Public Office of the Intellectual Property Office of Ireland (IPOI) has also been closed to the public since March 2020. The IPOI is currently reviewing when the Public Office will re-open. Most of the work of the Office can be conducted online, such as the e-filing of applications, fee payments and so on, and members of the public can still contact the IPOI by either telephone or email, as they have been able to since March of last year.

Such is the nature of the work of Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement that is does not have a public office.

The agencies under the direct remit of my Department include the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Enterprise Ireland, the Health and Safety Authority, IDA Ireland, the Irish Accounting and Auditing Supervisory Authority, the National Standards Authority of Ireland and the Personal Injuries Assessment Board. Such is the nature of the enterprise agencies work is that they deal with their respective clients across a range of locations, nationally and internationally, and do not operate public offices for access by the general public.