Response to Letter from Senator Brian Hayes in relation to Benchmarking

19/12/2003

Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.

16^th December, 2003

The Editor

The Tallaght Echo

Unit 19

Village Green

Tallaght

Dublin 24

Response to Letter from Senator Brian Hayes in relation to

Benchmarking – Sustaining Progress Agreement 2003 – 2005

Dear Editor

During 2004 the Councils Revenue and Capital Budgets will be in the region of €400 million of which the cost of the Benchmarking awards will total €3.74million.  The Councils payroll budget for 2004 represents 32% of the overall revenue expenditure costs compared to 31% for 2003 – representing an increase of just 1%.  This ratio of payroll to revenue budget is considered favourable by national standards and is a key indicator of the council achieving real value for money from its day-to-day works programmes.

The Council is conscious of the need for the organisation to be more responsive, to develop a capacity to be more innovative, to be proficient at communicating, to provide a quality service, to encourage continuous staff development and to develop a performance and results driven culture within the organisation.

The Sustaining Progress Agreement 2003 – 2005 reflects the way in which the organisation is responding to greater customer demand and its drive towards better customer service and efficiency.

During 2004 a number of significant initiatives will be developed as a result of the Benchmarking Agreement the benefits of which will be readily visible to our customers.  These will include:

1.            Extended lunch-time openings

2.            Stable Industrial Relations

3.            More efficient fleet management system

4.            Increased range of 24/7 services on - line

5.            Enhanced focus on Customer Service delivery at all points of contact

6.            Further development of Staff Training programmes involving the critical examination of all organisational work 

          processes  as well as enhanced Customer contact training

7.            Greater customer friendly service delivery and value for money performance management initiatives.

8.            Move to pay by volume for domestic refuse collection allowing for increased activity on recycling

9.            Further development of our Customer Complaints System

10.         Customer surveys to be conducted to allow for feedback on the way we provide services and how these services can be improved

11.         Extension of the working day through e-initiatives making 24/7 access to services a reality

12.         Pay your Bills on-line facility available

13.         Ensuring customers contacts with the Council are dealt with in an efficient and effective manner through the introduction of a ‘Contact Management System’, which will give our customers an acknowledgement and an informative response within the minimum of time.

The above represents a number of the many initiatives that are being developed as a direct result of the Benchmarking Agreement.  Many of our customers will already have noticed the change in our service delivery to date and the additional changes planned for 2004 will underpin the Councils commitment to the delivery of a responsive, cost effective and customer driven organisation.  I am confident that the payback from the Benchmarking Agreement is already noticeable and will be even more so during the course of 2004.

Yours sincerely,

____________________________

Joe Horan

County Manager

Released on behalf of Benny Hickey, Head of Corporate Services

Email: benny.hickey@sdublincoco.ie