Kerry Dalton, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux visits Belfast

Kerry Dalton, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux has been visiting Citizens Advice Northern Ireland on a fact finding trip.  "I specifically wanted to come to Citizens Advice Northern Ireland because of the exciting initiatives that have taken place here" says Ms Dalton. 
 
"Citizens Advice has been very effective in developing IT to support both front line Bureau staff and associated social policy work as well as to enhance quality of service provision and we are very interested in that."
 
"Additionally they have developed some interesting initiatives to support the long-term sustainability and independence of the organisation, such as its Trading Company, Citizens Advice Services, which provides an interesting model for our organisation to think about."
 
In New Zealand there are 91 bureaux sites delivering the Citizens Advice service, from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South. She goes on to say  "We have 2,600 trained volunteers who last year assisted the public of New Zealand with 643,000 client enquiries - that's out of a population of 4 million people".
 
"I have gained some very valuable insights from my visit to Belfast, which will contribute to the development that is currently taking place in Citizens Advice throughout New Zealand.  On top of that, I got to experience fantastic hospitality and stunning weather for every day that I was here."
 
"Now that the links have been made, I look forward to an ongoing relationship between our two organisations."