Call for dedicated phone line to handle cllrs' housing queries

A CALL for a dedicated phone line to be installed specifically for councillors so that they can get more prompt responses to their queries from Meath Co Council’s housing department has been made at a council meeting.

Sinn Fein Cllr Helen Meyer tabled a notice of motion to that effect at the September meeting. Officials responded that the council experiences a very high volume of phone calls on a daily basis.

The most appropriate way to contact housing was through its CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Portal. Many of the phone calls were detailed and took time. Phones can go unanswered if staff are on calls, in meetings or out of the office holding clinics, allocating houses, or carrying out in-person assessments.

“The most appropriate way to contact the housing department is by contacting the customer service team who can log a Sugar Case for housing staff to get back to the caller. This is a more efficient use of time, as the staff member can have the facts to hand when calling or emailing back. All interactions with councillors need to be logged through Members Reps to ensure representation can be tracked, traced and dealt with in a timely manner,” the officials said.

Cllr Meyer said that in her experience calls to the housing department were not answered. Constituents could not get through and they contacted councillors with their queries. Housing was a number one concern and councillors dealt with these queries on a daily basis. A dedicated phone line for councillors' queries would be very helpful, she said. This was the system used in the Oireachtas and it worked very well. Cllr Blake seconded the motion.

Independent Cllr Alan Lawes supported Cllr Meyer’s call saying that he had many complaints from constituents saying they could not get through on the phone.

Fianna Fail Cllr Sean Drew said he had found no improvement in the CRM system used by the council. The housing department wasn’t the only department affected. It was a question of “pot luck” whether a response was forthcoming, he said.

Sometimes there was an acknowledgement but getting a substantive response within a reasonable period of time was not being met.

Sinn Fein Cllr Maria White said that the system of communications for constituents and councillors was not working properly.

Fine Gael Cllr Gerry O'Connor said that while he understood the idea behind the notice of motion but his experience was that the housing department was “very, very efficient” and very effective.

“If they don’t answer the phone they are dealing with a problem. He said he could not support the motion.

Cllr Nick Killian said that the Independent Group on the council opposed the suggestion of a dedicated phone line for councillors. With a General Election coming up they could only hope that there would be more money for resources within the county councils.

Council Chief Executive Kieran Kehoe said each individual case was very complicated, very personal. Because of that it did take time to deal with them. Ringing through to an official in the housing department with a “cold call” and the ability to answer a specific question on an individual case is very difficult. It took time to research the file, look at the detail and come back to the individual concerned. That was being done, he said.

“If that wasn’t being done we wouldn’t be one of the best performing councils in the country. We would be at the bottom of the table and we are not. We are one of the best performing councils in the country and that’s what the record says.”