department of social and family affairs annual report 2006 - Welfare.ie

APPENDIX 4(A) REGULATORY
IMPACT ANALYSIS
1) The Department’s Legislation Programme for
2006
The Department’s Legislation Programme for
2006 encompassed the enactment of two
pieces of primary legislation, i.e.:
- the Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions
Act 2006, and
- the Social Welfare Act 2006.
As these acts provided the statutory basis for
the implementation of a number of budgetary
initiatives, together with some technical
amendments to the social welfare code but
did not entail substantive adjustments to the
existing statutory schemes, RIAs were not
required.
2) Comhairle (Amendment) Bill 2004
Proposals (including the Heads of a Bill)
were brought to Government in 2006 for the
Citizens Information Bill, 2006 to replace the
Comhairle (Amendment) Bill 2004.
A screening RIA was carried out on those
aspects of the proposals which were new to the
Government, i.e., which had not already been
considered in the context of the decision to
publish the Comhairle (Amendment) Bill 2004.
The RIA was published on the Department’s
website at the time of the publication of the
Citizens Information Bill, 2006 (October, 2006).
It is available on the website.
APPENDIX 5 PERFORMANCE
AGAINST CUSTOMER CHARTER
STANDARDS
Access to our Services
Making our offices accessible for all including
people with disabilities
90% of our offices are now accessible for people
with disabilities.
95% of Branch Offices are accessible for people
with disabilities.
All new/refurbished offices facilitate access/
movement by people with disabilities.
Programme of improvements (managed by the
Office of Public Works) to make existing offices
accessible is ongoing.
Extending our opening hours in many of our Local
Offices
At the end of 2006 a total of 41 local offices were
providing a service throughout lunch hour. The
situation at other offices will be kept under review.
Respecting your privacy needs if calling to our
offices
This service is being provided where facilities
permit, to those who require it.
Improving our services for visually impaired
customers
All information on the Department’s website has
been developed to an XHTML, AAA standard.
This enables visually impaired users to use special
screen reading software to have the text read out
by their computers. The site has been optimised
for custom settings, i.e. text can be resized on
screen to suit the customer’s needs.
A Braille printer was provided to Blind Pension
section in order to communicate with our visually
impaired clients.
Information is provided in Braille, on audio or in
large print on request. A sign language facilitator
is also made available on request.
annual report 2006
99