Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 March 2026
265. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Defence the protocols in place at her Department headquarters in Newbridge, County Kildare to facilitate communication with those wishing to engage by phone with Department staff; the reason callers are put on hold and left on hold for excessive periods of time, and calls that need to be transferred are once again delayed or not completed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16673/26]
View answerI am sorry if the Deputy has had a less than satisfactory experience in terms of contacting the Department.
The Department of Defence reception has two phone lines available to answer and redirect calls. The process is outlined as follows:
1. A Caller phones the Department's reception number in Newbridge.
2. The Service Officer (SVO) answers the call, asking caller how may the call be redirected.
Note, if both lines are currently in use by Service Officers, the call will continue to ring until such time as one of the lines becomes available. The caller is not redirected to an answering service.
3. Caller will provide a staff's name to the SVO.
4. The SVO looks up the Department's official on an internal data base, and re-directs the call to the staff's desk number. While being redirected the call is on a temporary hold while the SVO dials and redirects to the staff's number.
5. Once redirected, and the staff's internal phone rings, the reception line no longer retains the call.
6. If a staff member is unavailable, the caller may be able to leave a message for the staff member to playback and respond to.
7. The call is automatically ended once a message has been left, and the caller hangs up.
The reception number is operated between the hours of 8am and 4.30pm Monday - Friday daily. A pre-recorded answering service is provided for out of hours, outside of these times. All callers are advised of normal hours of availability and to ring back during these times.
