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Annual Report of the Ombudsman 2003

Chapter 2 - Assisting the Vulnerable and the Marginalised in Society

Assisting the Vulnerable and the Marginalised in Society

My Office's remit covers central and local government and the health area and it is approached by people from all sectors of society who have reason to complain about the services delivered by public bodies. Complainants may be taxpayers, parents, students, farmers, fishermen, housing applicants, old age pensioners, people with disabilities, carers, elderly, hospital patients, unemployed, planning applicants and objectors, residents associations, community groups or companies. And this is to name but a few of the many guises in which people interact, either intermittently, or on an ongoing basis, with those bodies that deliver public services.

My Office either fully upholds or provides some form of assistance in almost 50% of all cases examined. This means that almost one in two of all complainants are better off as a result of having complained to my Office. Thanks to the emphasis in recent years on the principles of quality customer service, most public bodies now publish detailed information about their schemes and programmes. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that many complainants who approach my Office have no difficulty in clearly articulating their grievances when things go wrong.

But not all complainants have a clear understanding of their entitlements and many of them approach the Office with nothing more than a vaguely expressed hope that we may be able to help them. This category includes the vulnerable and the marginalised and even in the short time I have held the post of Ombudsman I have been struck by the very real and positive impact my Office can have in dealing with complaints from this sector of society. This includes people who are socially, economically or physically marginalised as a result of poverty, lack of education, ill health etc. I know that public bodies and public servants seek to deal with people in a fair and equitable manner but the relationship between the individual and a public body is not always a balanced one. Not everyone who has cause for complaint is capable of articulating their views or understanding complex schemes, rules and regulations. Many people do feel intimidated by the prospect of having to engage with public bodies in order to get a satisfactory service or full and ready access to benefits and entitlements. Generally speaking, the option of seeking redress through the courts is not a viable one for the marginalised in our society.

An added and perhaps less obvious strength which my Office has is the vast experience of its staff in dealing with a wide range of public schemes and services and the skills of those staff being brought to bear on behalf of complainants who allege wrongdoing by public bodies. In the case of complainants who, perhaps, are not always able to present the best possible case to a public body, my staff will, in a sense, act on behalf of the complainant in presenting their case and in the process redress the unequal balance that often exists between the complainant and the public body. Of course, we have to be entirely objective as to the ultimate outcome of the complaint. It is not my purpose to make representations on behalf of complainants but rather to assess whether the public body has acted properly, fairly, openly and impartially in the particular case.

My Office has a proven track record in securing redress for complainants and in improving standards in service delivery. Where I find evidence of maladministration and where some form of redress is merited my Office relies on persuasion, criticism, publicity and moral authority to have its recommendations implemented. Since it commenced working in 1984 my Office has had an excellent track record in this regard. In contrast to the courts my Office acts in an inquisitorial rather than an adversarial manner, we mainly carry on our business in an informal manner and, of course, our services are free. My Office quite often looks beyond the circumstances of the individual cases to see if lessons can be learned which can bring about systemic improvements for the benefit of others. On occasion my Office has unearthed inequities or inconsistencies in the law arising from individual cases and I can highlight these in my Annual Reports or special reports to the Oireachtas with suggestions as to how those being adversely affected can be assisted. Ultimately, this can lead to assurances that the same mistakes will not be repeated and to raising the quality of service provided to clients of public bodies.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate some of the points I have made here is to set out in this Chapter the details of some relevant cases with which my Office dealt during 2003.

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