Customer Charter

DEPARTMENT OF THE TAOISEACH
- CUSTOMER CHARTER -

The Department of the Taoiseach is committed to providing a professional,
efficient and courteous service to all our customers.

Our mandate is to support the Taoiseach in his constitutional and ceremonial role as Head of Government and to assist him in providing effective leadership, co-ordination and guidance across key policy areas. The staff of the Department conscientiously and impartially serve the Taoiseach and Government of the day, the Ministers of State, the other institutions of State and the general public, always acting with diligence, efficiency and courtesy.

Our Commitments to our customers

We aim to provide an excellent service that reflects your needs and expectations. To achieve this, we make the following commitments:

Policy Development and Implementation
We will aim to ensure that our contribution to the development and implementation of Government policy adds value to the achievement of our national and international goals.
Contacting the Department
We will provide details of the role/function of staff in relevant publications and on the website and specific contact information in all correspondence.
Responding to You
You will receive clear, timely and concise replies to all correspondence, including e-mails. If your correspondence relates to a matter that comes within the remit of another public body, we will direct the correspondence to that body and inform you accordingly. If you contact us by telephone, courteous and helpful staff will deal with your query without delay or, if they are unable to respond to the query, arrange for someone to do so.
Meetings
Meetings will be organised and conducted efficiently and effectively. You can expect excellent meeting facilities, timely notification and advance circulation of clear and concise documentation for each meeting.
Visitors to the Department
All visitors to the Department will be treated in a courteous manner and directed to their correct destination quickly. High quality reception facilities will be provided, including appropriate provision for people with disabilities.
Media Services
We will provide members of the media with comprehensive and timely briefings on Government policies and activities. Appropriate staff will also be available to ensure that you receive a prompt and satisfactory response to your queries.
The Irish Language
We will ensure that customers who wish to conduct their business through Irish can do so.
Websites and publications
We will provide accessible, informative and usable websites. We will ensure that our publications are clear and concise, address user needs and are available on our websites.
Tours of Government Buildings
We will provide informative tours of Government Buildings, conducted by qualified guides, to make your visit a positive experience.
Diversity and Equality
We will respect the principles of equality, and the diversity of our customers, in the delivery of all services.
Suppliers
We will operate clear, impartial and transparent tendering/purchasing procedures.
Evaluation and reporting
This Charter has been developed following consultation with a wide range of our customers. We have defined criteria by which we will assess our performance against each of our commitments and will regularly survey our customers on the quality of the services we provide. We will report on our performance against each of these criteria in our Annual Report.

We welcome your comments and suggestions on this Charter, or on any of the services we provide. We also have a procedure for responding to any complaints you may have and this may be viewed via the Customer Complaints Procedure .

In return, we expect our staff to be treated with courtesy and respect

MEASURING AND EVALUATING PERFORMANCE

We will put appropriate mechanisms in place to measure and evaluate performance against the commitments in our Charter, which we will keep under review in order to continuously improve our service. We will report on our performance in our Annual Report.

The indicators we will use to measure performance:

Policy Development and Implementation:
- Progress reported against the strategic objectives/priorities in our Strategy Statement
- Feedback from customers on our contribution to policy development
Contacting us:
- Information on role/staff of various Sections included in FOI Guide, on our websites and in relevant publications
- Contact name, telephone number and email address of person dealing with the matter included in all written and email correspondence
Correspondence:
- Written:
  - All correspondence acknowledged within 3 working days of receipt
  - Full response to all correspondence within 15 working days of receipt or, where this is not possible, an interim reply to issue explaining the position and advising when a substantive response will issue
- E-mail:
  - All e-mails requiring a response acknowledged within 1 working day of receipt
  - Full response to all such e-mails within 15 working days of receipt or, where this is not possible, an interim reply to issue explaining the position and advising when a substantive response will issue
  - Use of automated e-mail responses by all staff when out of the office
- Telephone:
  - 90% of calls to main Department switchboard answered within 15 seconds
  - All callers directed to correct member of staff/section
  - All staff identify themselves to caller when answering telephone
  - Response by staff to voicemail messages within 1 working day
  - Voicemail messages updated as appropriate to indicate staff availability
- Meetings:
  - Notice of meetings at least 1 week in advance (unless agreed with participants)
  - Papers for meetings circulated at least three working days in advance (unless agreed with participants)
  - Customer satisfaction levels with the organisation and conduct of meetings
  - Customer satisfaction levels with the facilities provided
- Visitors to the Department:
  - Customer satisfaction levels with facilities and services provided
  - Visitors collected from reception within 5 minutes of their expected arrival time
  - Improvements made to building to facilitate access for persons with disabilities
  - Compliance with Health and Safety standards
- Media:
  - Major policy speeches and press releases published on website within 1 working day
  - Customer satisfaction levels with services provided
- Irish Language:
  - Official Languages Scheme in place by date agreed with the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs
  - Scheme implemented within agreed timeframe
  - Customer satisfaction levels with services provided through Irish
- Websites and publications:
  - Up-to-date, usable websites, validated by external evaluation
  - All our publications available on website simultaneous to other media
  - WAI compliant website (level 1 and 2)
- Tours of Government Buildings:
  - Customer satisfaction levels with tours provided
- Equality and Diversity:
  - Steps taken to raise staff awareness of equality/diversity issues
  - No complaints against Department on equality/diversity grounds
- Suppliers:
  - All procurements carried out using clear tendering procedures (in accordance with Government Contracts Committee Guidelines)
  - Late payments (proportionate to overall number of payments made) minimised

How we will measure our performance:

We will use a range of measurement/evaluation tools, both qualitative and quantitative, to measure our performance, including:

Feedback and suggestions from our customers on an ongoing basis;
Consulting our customers through surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups, etc., benchmarking our performance against previous results;
Using internal management information systems (e.g. correspondence tracking systems, ringmaster, etc.)
Disability Audits, compliance with National Health and Safety Standards, external evaluation of websites, etc.;
Using techniques such as mystery shopping.

Training:

We will invest in customer service training for staff, particularly those in regular contact with members of the general public.