Customer charter

Customer Charter - Department of Justice, Equality & Law Reform

Mission Statement

To maintain and enhance community security and equality through the development of a range of policies and high quality services which underpin:

the protection and assertion of human rights and fundamental freedoms consistent with the common good;
the security of the State;
an effective balanced approach to tackling crime; and
progress towards the elimination of discrimination and the promotion of equal opportunities and the accommodation of diversity.

Our Customers

Our customers come from many walks of life such as individual members of the public, elected representatives, the agencies associated with the Department, other Government Departments and Offices, international organisations and many voluntary and representative groups who do business with the Department.

Our Aim

We aim at all times to provide our customers with a professional, efficient and courteous service and to do our best to improve the standards of the service which we provide. The purpose of this Customer Charter is to set out the standard of service our customers can expect to receive from the Department.

(Note: the publication of a Customer Charter is not intended to create new legal rights for customers)

Our Commitment to our Customers

Customer satisfaction is very important to us and we aim to achieve this by:

giving our customers the best possible service and advice;
treating customers in a proper, fair, impartial and courteous manner;
aiming to ensure that rights to equal treatment set out by equality legislation are upheld in the delivery of our services;
aiming, where possible, to meet any special need our customers may have.

Telephone Enquiries

We will be available to answer telephone calls during normal office hours (9:15am - 5:30pm Monday to Thursday [5:15pm on Friday]). Our aim is to answer all calls quickly. We will identify ourselves and our area of work. We will be polite and helpful, and do our best to provide our customers with clear and correct information. If we cannot give an answer straight away, we will take the customers details and call them back at a suitable time. We will only connect callers to voicemail when the person they wish to speak to is unavailable and we will do our best to respond to voicemail messages within one working day.

Written Communications

We will acknowledge the majority of written communications within 5 working days of receiving them, and provide a final reply within 20 working days. In cases where there is going to be a delay, we will explain this to our customers by an interim reply before the 20 day period is up. Our staff will provide our customers with full contact details and a reference number (where applicable). If the correspondence is for another Government Department or body, we will pass it on directly to them and we will tell the customer what we have done with it.

Personal Callers

We will be available to meet by appointment with our customers during normal office hours and where it is necessary, we will try to be flexible about our own availability at times outside these hours. We will greet visitors politely, be fair and helpful, and deal with their enquiries as quickly as possible. We will provide suitable facilities for meetings and will make sure that our offices are clean and safe. We will also make sure that our offices are accessible for people with disabilities.

Equal Status Policy

We are fully committed to providing a service that all our customers can avail of and that treats all customers equally. We will do our best to make sure that the service we provide takes account of the needs that particular groups of customers may have and we will consult with our customers to make sure that their accessibility needs are looked after. We will provide suitable staff training to support these commitments.

Equality/Diversity

We will increase the levels of knowledge in the Department about equality and diversity and we will do this through training, information and communication. In our dealings with our customers, we will make sure that their rights to equal treatment set out by equality legislation are upheld.

Séirbhís Trí Ghaeilge

Tabharfar freagra as Gaeilge ar chomhfreagras a gheofar i nGaeilge. Déanfar gach iarracht freastal ar fhiafraithe teileafóin i nGaeilge agus freastal ar dhaoine a thagann i láthair ar mian leo a ngnó a dhéanamh trí Ghaeilge.

Service in Irish

We will ensure that customers who wish to deal with us through Irish can do so.

Training

We will invest in customer service training for staff, in particular for staff who are in contact with the general public.

Feedback

We are committed to consulting with our customers and to asking them how we are doing. Our customers can help us by:

providing comments, complaints or suggestions about the service we give,
filling out and returning any customer survey forms we may send to them.

If a customer wants to make a suggestion on how we could improve our service, they can e-mail our Quality Customer Service Office. The email address is customerservices@justice.ie. Customers can also write to:

Quality Customer Service Officer, Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, 94 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2.

How we will we know how we are doing?

We will find this out by:

feedback and suggestions received from our customers;
consulting our customers through surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups, etc., comparing our performance against previous results;
using internal management information systems (e.g. correspondence tracking systems, our email system, etc.)
Disability Audits, compliance with National Health and Safety Standards, external evaluation of websites, etc.;

Customer Complaints

If a customer has a complaint about the service we have provided they should either ask to speak to the line manager of the area concerned who will investigate the complaint or write to the Quality Customer Service Officer for the Department. If we have made a mistake we will do our best to put things right. We will acknowledge complaints within 5 working days and try to deal with them within 10 working days. If we need to carry out further investigations we will let the customer know and will try to have this completed within 20 working days.

If the customer is still not satisfied with the outcome they can write to the:

Office of the Ombudsman, 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2. Telephone + 353 1 678 5222; LoCall 1890 22 30 30; email : ombudsman@ombudsman.irlgov.ie

Help Us to Help You

We can help you best if you:

Provide any information you have which is relevant to your inquiry
Provide any relevant documents and reference numbers you have
Follow any checklists or guidelines which you have been given
Treat our staff and other customers with courtesy and respect

Contact Points/Phone Numbers

Website: www.justice.ie
Email: info@justice.ie

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform

94 St. Stephen's Green
Dublin 2
(Minister and Secretariat)

and

Pinebrook House
71-74 Harcourt Street
Dublin 2
Lo-Call : 1890 221 227
Telephone: + 353 1 6028202

Department's Civil Law Reform and Equality Divisions

Bishop's Square
Redmond's Hill
Dublin 2
Telephone: + 353 1 4790200

Department's Financial Shared Services Centre

Deerpark
Killarney
Co. Kerry
Telephone: + 353 64 70300

Central Authority for International Child Abductions

Bishop's Square
Redmond's Hill
Dublin 2
Telephone: + 353 1 4790200

Central Authority for Foreign Maintenance Recovery

Bishop's Square
Redmond's Hill
Dublin 2
Telephone: + 353 1 4790200

Central Authority for Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
94 St. Stephen's Green
Dublin 2
Telephone: + 353 1 6028202
Fax + 353 1 6028606
E-Mail mutual@justice.ie.

Immigration, Asylum and Citizenship Division

13/14 Burgh Quay
Dublin 2
Telephone: + 353 1 6167700