Many people are still unaware of their basic rights and entitlements on a range of State services, such as social welfare, medical cards and employment benefits, according to the network of citizen information centres.
Queries to the Citizens' Information Service, which is funded by the State agency Comhairle, received in the region of two million queries last year through its information centres, telephone service and website.
The majority of queries related to social welfare entitlements, although employment-related queries are on the increase, said Tony McQuinn, senior manager of development and support services at Comhairle.
"Awareness is growing, but there are a lot of people who are not aware of their basic rights and entitlements.
"We try to address a person's needs by providing all the related information a person needs," Mr McQuinn said.
"There has been an increase in the number of employment-related queries regarding basic rights under employment legislation, which reflects the growing levels of employment.
"Social welfare queries now account for around a third of queries, compared to half a few years ago."
Comhairle funds almost 100 citizen information service centres across the State, a phone service (1890 777 121) and website (www.oasis.gov.ie).
It also has introduced a new "ask a question" service on the website, which responded to more than 8,000 e-mail queries.
Separately, Comhairle is developing a new advocacy service for disabled people, which will include personal advocates for people with disabilities.
A number of pilot projects, including a citizen advocacy service for people with learning disabilities in Limerick, have already been established.
Comhairle has also been involved in policy submissions regarding areas relevant to its work, such as medical card eligibility.
In a recent report, it found that families or individuals on low incomes had difficulty getting or keeping a medical card and that income guidelines needed to be increased.
Comhairle has also been developing a service in conjunction with authorities in the North, which aims to optimise cross-Border co-operation in delivering advice and information services.
