Customer Care

We are committed to giving you a quality service. Our staff will make sure that services are delivered properly, fairly, openly and impartially.

Dealing ‘properly’ with you means dealing with you:

• correctly, under the law, with rules governing your entitlements and with published quality standards established for the particular service;
• sensitively, taking account of your age, your ability to understand often complicated rules, any disability you may have and your privacy and convenience; helpfully, by making procedures, forms and information on entitlements and services easier to understand, by keeping proper records and by telling you about time limits or conditions that might disqualify you;
• carefully, by communicating with other public bodies to make sure that your needs are not overlooked;
• courteously, including communicating with you in Irish if you would like ;
•  responsibly, by explaining why we might make a decision that is not what you hoped for;
• and promptly, in line with the time limits outlined below.

We will:

• answer all telephone calls promptly and courteously;
• tell you who you are speaking to when we answer the phone; give you the name of the person who is dealing with your case;
• make sure that we operate in line with the Prompt Payment of Accounts Act; and
• reply to your letters as soon as possible.

If we cannot answer your letter immediately, we will:

• acknowledge your letter within 5 working days;
• in most cases, give you an answer within 15 working days;
• and write to let you know if we need to do a lot of research before giving you a full reply and tell you when you will receive a full reply.

Dealing ‘fairly’ with you means:

• treating you the same as we would treat others in similar situations;
• accepting that we should not be so rigid or inflexible in applying the rules and regulations that we create an unfair situation;
• avoiding penalties that are too harsh for making people obey the rules;
• being prepared to review rules and procedures and change them if necessary;
• giving you enough notice before changing any rules that might reduce your entitlements; having an internal review system so that unfavourable decisions can be looked at again by someone not involved in the first decision;
• telling you how you can appeal an unfavourable decision; and
• co-operating fully in any appeal and the outcome of the appeal. ]

Dealing ‘openly’ with you means:

• putting you in contact with the officials of Limerick City Council who are responsible for dealing with you:
• referring you to other sources of help, if appropriate;
• providing full, up-to-date information on the rules and practices of public schemes and programmes administered by Limerick City Council;
• giving you full information about why we made an unfavourable decision and what we found out while making the decision; and
• making sure you know what information is available and how to get it and know your rights under Freedom of Information Act.

Finally, dealing ‘impartially’ with you means:

• making decisions based on what is relevant in the rules and law and ignoring what is irrelevant; avoiding bias because of your gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, disability, race,membership of the Travelling community, language, attitude or reputation, or because of who you are or who you know;
• making sure that, where a service is based on a set of priorities, those priorities are clear and open;
• being careful that a staff member’s prejudices do not affect any decision made about you;
• and not allowing a staff member to take part in a decision where they have a conflict of interest or a potential conflict of interest, or where it may appear that there is a conflict of interest.

Code of Conduct for Customers

This Code of Conduct is for members of the public who use the facilities and services of Limerick City Council.

Our aim is to give you a high quality of service in a safe and secure environment.To achieve this,we ask you to note that we will not accept the following behaviour in any of our facilities.

• Disturbing others or interfering with their use and enjoyment of facilities
• Using offensive or inappropriate language with staff or members of the public
• Using violence or the threat of violence towards staff or members of the public
• Maliciously (deliberately) damaging, or stealing, Limerick City Council property
• Using alcohol or illegal drugs on Limerick City Council premises Leaving property unattended while using Limerick City Council premises
• Smoking within Limerick City Council premises

Please help us to encourage the responsible and considerate use of Limerick City Council facilities by observing this Code of Conduct.

Customer Care Complaints Procedure

We are committed to delivering the best possible service to our customers in a proper, fair, open and impartial way, as outlined in our Customer Charter. If you feel that the standard of our service does not meet the guidelines set out in the Charter, you may wish to make a complaint.

Our staff will help you to use the complaints procedure and will treat your complaint fairly.

Making a complaint will not harm your future dealings with Limerick City Council.

HOWTO MAKE A COMPLAINT

STAGE 1: INFORMAL

Discuss at the point of service

The staff who can best deal with a complaint are those who provide the service. Please talk first with the staff member who has been dealing with you. Mistakes and misunderstandings are usually sorted out quickly and efficiently at this stage.

STAGE 2: FORMAL

Contact the Customer Care Co-ordinator for Limerick City Council.

If you are unhappy with the outcome of Stage 1 and would like to make a formal complaint, simply complete the attached form and return it to the Customer Care Co-ordinator. You may hand in the form at our offices or post it directly to the Customer Care Co-ordinator, Limerick City Council, City Hall, Merchants Quay, Limerick.

If you would like to make your complaint in person, you can make an appointment with the Customer Care Co-ordinator, who will arrange a place in the City Hall, Merchants Quay, Limerick, where you can make your complaint in private. Telephone No (061) 407100. The Customer Care Co-ordinator will write to you within 5 working days to acknowledge your complaint and tell you the name of the Senior Manager who will deal with it. In most cases,we will send you a full response within 28 days. If we cannot respond to your complaint in this time,we will write to you and tell you when we will be able to respond.

STAGE 3: FORMAL

Contact the Appeals Officer

If you are not happy with the response at Stage 2, you may appeal to the Director of Service, Corporate Services, Limerick City Council, City Hall, Merchants Quay, Limerick, who will examine the complaint again. The Director of Service will write to you within 21 working days after receiving your appeal and give you a final response from Limerick City Council. If it is not possible to respond to you within 21 working days,we will write to you and tell you when we will be able to respond.

The Office of the Ombudsman

If you feel that you have been unfairly treated or are not satisfied with our decision on your complaint, it is open to you to contact the Office of the Ombudsman. By law the Ombudsman can investigate complaints about any of our administrative actions and procedures as well as delays or inaction in your dealing with us. The Ombudsman provides an impartial, independent and free dispute resolution service.

Limerick City Council will co-operate fully with the Office of the Ombudsman in their investigation of your complaint.

The contact details for the Office of the Ombudsman are:

Office of the Ombudsman
18 Lower Leeson Street,
Dublin 2
Tel: 01 639 5600
Fax: 01 639 5674
LoCall: 1890 223 030
Email: ombudsman@ombudsman.gov.ie
www.ombudsman.ie

Contact us

You may use the Customer Care Complaints Form (58 Kb) to make a complaint about a Council service. You may hand in the form at any of our offices, send it by email or by post to the address below:

Customer Care Co-Ordinator

Phone: (061) 407100
Fax: (061) 415266
email: customercare@limerickcity.ie

Opening hours:
Monday to Friday 9.00am - 5.00pm

Address:
Customer Care Co-Ordinator
3rd Floor,
City Hall,
Merchants Quay,
Limerick City,
IRELAND