Annual Report of the Ombudsman 2007

Foreword

I hereby submit my fifth Annual Report to the Dáil and Seanad pursuant to the provisions of Section 6(7) of the Ombudsman Act, 1980. This is the 24th Annual Report submitted in relation to the work of the Office of the Ombudsman since it was established in 1984.

Emily O’Reilly

Ombudsman

June 2008

Introduction

The year 2007 was a particularly busy one for my Office, with a total number of 2,578 valid complaints being received which was not only an increase of 14.8% on the intake for 2006 but was, in fact, the highest annual intake since 1999. In addition, we dealt with 9,334 enquiries during the year.

Since 1 January 2007, as a result of the provisions of the Health Act 2004, my Office’s remit has been extended to cover, inter alia, large public voluntary hospitals and my Office did much work during the year to ensure this new area of activity was taken up as efficiently and seamlessly as possible, not only from my Office’s point of view but also those hospitals falling under my remit for the first time. I provide details of this preparatory work in Chapter 4 of this Report.

Chapter 2 of this Report, entitled “Resolving Complaints and Improving Public Administration” illustrates the wider positive impact of the outcome of individual complaints which I deal with. Thus, one complaint against the Department of Social and Family Affairs about entitlement to child benefit led to a change in the relevant legislation. Following another individual case in which I recommended the payment of arrears for respite care, the Health Service Executive: Dublin Mid Leinster agreed to pay areas amounting to a total of €67,000 to some 34 foster-parents. In Chapter 2 I also give details of a complaint involving the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food which led to improvements nation-wide in the administration of the Cattle Monitoring and Movement System. I also make the point that many of the public bodies under my remit carry out similar functions, for instance, all hospitals are involved in patient care and all local authorities administer planning processes. The resolution of individual complaints involves lessons being learned by the public bodies involved and may lead to improvements in the way they administer schemes or carry out their day-to-day functions. This can lead to wider improvements in the case of other public bodies carrying out similar functions provided they take the time and effort to study the outcomes of cases I describe in my annual reports and apply those lessons, where appropriate.

I very much welcome the fact that the Department of Finance now expects that the long-awaited Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill will be enacted during 2008 (see Chapter 4 of this Report). The Bill proposes to extend my jurisdiction to a wider range of public bodies for example, FÁS and the Health and Safety Authority. However, it is my understanding that the Bill will not extend my remit to complaints regarding decisions in relation to immigration and asylum matters. I am most concerned about this. By co-incidence the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill which proposes radical changes to the administration of the asylum system is also due to be enacted in 2008. There is no provision under that legislation either to open up such complaints to my Office. When the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform first published outline policy proposals for an Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill I made a submission to the Department about the matter in July 2005. I subsequently wrote to Mr. Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights in November 2007 in the context of his subsequent visit to Ireland to assess the human rights situation here. In my letter to Mr. Hammarberg I expressed my concerns about the restriction in my jurisdiction in this area. Furthermore, in March 2008 I made a submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights which had sought submissions on the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill.

In my correspondence and submissions, I have stressed a number of points about this lacuna in my jurisdiction. I highlighted the fact that most Ombudsman Offices in Europe have jurisdiction in this area of administration. It is an area of administration which impacts very significantly on the lives of a very vulnerable group of people, many of whom face significant challenges in dealing with organs of state and complex administrative processes which they know little about, while also being faced by barriers such as a lack

I wish to express my appreciation to my Director General, Pat Whelan and Tom Morgan, Senior Investigator for their excellent work on the production of this Annual Report. During the year, Mick Brophy, Senior Investigator retired and I would like to thank Mick for his long years of dedicated service on behalf of complainants. Finally, I must record two sad events. My staff and I deeply regret the passing of Ireland’s first Ombudsman, Michael Mills. Michael served as Ombudsman from 1984 to 1994 and performed his functions with great passion, conviction and courage. My Office was shocked by the tragic loss of our esteemed colleague Eoghan Halpin, who was head of our IT Unit. We extend our sincere condolences to their families.