Official opening of the new Central Revenue Information Office (CRIO), Cathedral Street, Dublin
13 September 2007
Remarks by Revenue Chairman Frank Daly
Tanaiste, Distinguished Guests and Colleagues
Welcome
On behalf of my fellow Board members Commissioners Josephine Feehily and Michael O'Grady I am delighted to welcome you this afternoon to the new CRIO.
We appreciate you taking the time to be with us.
Citizens and the State
In studies which from time to time seek to measure the extent to which citizens and business interact with State Bodies, Revenue always comes out on top – it is the State organisation that most people will deal with or contact right through their lifetime.
[As yet not one of those studies of course has shown that Revenue is the State body citizens would most like to deal with – there is work to be done yet on building enthusiasm out there for talking to the tax office!]
That high degree of interaction translates into figures which from time to time firmly plant themselves at the forefront of my consciousness. In 2006:
- We met and dealt with in excess of 900,000 personal callers to our offices
- We answered over three million telephone calls – that’s an average of twelve thousand per working day;
- We dealt with over three million items of post;
- We processed over four and a half million payments, and of course
- We collected over €45 billion in tax and duty revenues.
Now two conclusions at least emerge from this small extract from our annual work programme:
- that Revenue has a huge task in delivering good service to citizens and;
- that, to a very great extent, citizens will judge their experience of dealing with the State on the basis of their experience in dealing with Revenue .
In Revenue we are committed to making the "experience" of dealing with us, and by extension, with the State, a good one - as pleasant, professional and effective as possible. We use a range of responses – everything from innovative use of technology, continuous review of organisational structures; regular validation of processes; the redesign and renovation of our offices; a firm commitment to consultation with our customers; listening and acting on complaints or suggestions for improvement.
Those responses noted however, it is still the reality that we get our best experiences through people and we are lucky that in Revenue we have really great people. Our staff has always been our greatest asset and we seek, through training, motivation and example to build on their natural abilities and talents and encourage them to provide all those with whom we deal with a "good service experience".
CRIO a model
This CRIO is one of the best examples I can think of, of that good service experience – technology, working environment, process improvement – but most of all personable, caring, professional staff whose commitment to service is second to none. I would like today to say a special word of thanks to all the CRIO staff, those who serve here now and those who have served here in the past. We appreciate what you do and what you have done and we particularly appreciate the patience you have shown in the exceptionally busy times prior to and during this renovation project.
A "good service experience" pledge from Revenue
We appreciate also the forebearance of our CRIO customers in recent times while we addressed the huge demands here and adapted the office to those demands.
And this afternoon, to customers of the CRIO and indeed to all Revenue's customers, I pledge our commitment to a "good service experience" when you do business with us. That means we promise continuous improvement of our service delivery, the roll out of the widest possible range of information sources, maximum choice (where that makes sense) in your channels for dealing with us, enthusiastic implementation of our programme of simplification and personal (and personable) assistance whenever you deal with Revenue.
These aspirations are not just mine. I know that they are embraced by all managers and staff in this organisation.
A Team effort
John has already thanked the many people and organisations who helped us get the new CRIO to where it is today. I add the Board's appreciation to that – thank you. I do however want to make two special mentions.
Accessibility
The work done by the team here, with the active assistance and collaboration of the NDA, in ensuring that this Office is fully accessible to people with disabilities is something we can all be pleased about. John has mentioned that the CRIO has been awarded the Quality through Accessibility Award and I am particularly proud of this – I am a member of the NDA Awarding Board (though I hasten to add I took no part in the deliberations on the CRIO assessment) and I know the exacting standards which are applied – these are not easy awards to get so very well done to all.
John Leamy
My second special mention this afternoon has to be of John Leamy himself. Most of you will know by now that he is leaving Revenue next week to take up a post as Deputy Commissioner/Chief Administrative Officer of An Garda Siochana. He secured that post – the highest at civilian level in the Gardai – following an open competition which attracted candidates from home and abroad. It is a measure of the man that he succeeded in such a challenging competition – few of us were surprised and our happiness and good wishes for John are tempered only by our sense of loss of a great friend and great colleague. Since we restructured Revenue four years ago John has led and developed the largest Region (Dublin) from the drawing board to the reality. His energy and dedication are legendary and his focus on delivery has been an example to all. The very same qualities were of course displayed by John in other areas and projects in Revenue – not least in the Revenue Online Service (ROS) which John also drove and delivered. While personally sad that John's talents are being lost to Revenue I think it a great thing that they are not being lost to the Irish public service. John, every success and good wish to you for the future.
Tanaiste
Finally Tanaiste I thank you for your continued support for Revenue and our programmes of modernisation and simplification and may I now invite you to formally open the new CRIO.