28/05/2014

Ombudsman Receives 90,000 Complaints In 30 Years

2014 marks 30 years since the establishment of an Ombudsman in Ireland and the Office has received nearly 90,000 complaints against public bodies since 1984.

At the launch of his annual report for 2013 Ombudsman Peter Tyndall said that his Office had received 3,190 complaints in 2013. The largest number of complaints involved the Department of Social Protection (491). The Ombudsman received 203 complaints against the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and 68 against the Revenue Commissioners. Complaints in relation to local authorities amounted to 495 with 310 complaints against the HSE.

Nearly 200 additional public bodies came under the Ombudsman’s remit in May 2013. The Ombudsman received 150 complaints involving these ‘new’ bodies. 105 of these were in connection with the third level education sector with 69 complaints involving Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI).

Vision for the future of the Office

On his future in the role of Ombudsman, Peter Tyndall said that there were a number of areas where he believes there is potential for development. These include:

• the extension of the Ombudsman's jurisdiction to include public services provided by private bodies and in particular, the opportunities offered by the European Directive on Alternative Dispute Resolution;

• the benefits of adopting a standardised approach to complaint handling across public services;

• the development of a single portal for public service complaints.

(CD/IT)

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