COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, September 21, 2015
QUESTION NO.11
QUESTION: Councillor D. Looney
To ask the Chief Executive to provide a detailed statement on the current status of Members' Reps and Customer Care systems used to track representations from Councillors, members of the public and others; to ask him to state the reason for the continued problems and delays in responding to Councillors and others using these systems; to state what impact staff changes have had on these systems; to state whether he believes the running of these systems has been adequate; and to state what plans he has in place to deal with the backlog of queries and the likely increase in representations in the run up to the general election.
REPLY:
The monthly Management Report to Council provides a range of statistics on agreed Performance Indicators for the services provided by the Council, including the response to representations received from elected members. This report has been available for each month of 2015 and shows the number of Members Reps responded to (5,369 year to date) and the average response time (5.5 days year to date). A full review of the Members Reps system was carried out in May - June 2015 which showed almost a threefold increase in the volume of Reps received between 2012 and 2015, from an average of 260 per month in 2012 to 725 per month in 2015. This increase in the volume of representations is the most significant factor affecting the response times for Reps. This review has identified a number of actions that are currently being implemented to manage this increased demand more effectively, including a standing item on the performance of the system on the Organisation Procedures and Finance Committee and a co-ordinator appointed within each department to ensure the correct assignment and timely response to reps submitted. This will continue to be monitored on an ongoing basis.
| Corporate Performance and Change Management | |||||||||
| Statistic Name | Jan-15 | Feb-15 | Mar-15 | Apr-15 | May-15 | Jun-15 | Jul-15 | Aug-15 | YTD |
| Members reps processed | 613 | 807 | 671 | 652 | 691 | 730 | 619 | 586 | 5369 |
| Members reps Av. Response time (days) | 7.2 | 5.2 | 6.9 | 7.3 | 7 | 3.04 | 1.04 | 6.7 | 5.5475 |