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Complaint Handling in Kildare County Council - A Report of the Ombudsman's experience of dealing with complaints against Kildare County Council

Findings

The Ombudsman Act, 1980 provides at section 7 (3) that:

(3) A person shall not by act or omission obstruct or hinder the Ombudsman in the performance of his functions or do any other thing which would, if the Ombudsman were a court having power to commit for contempt, be in contempt of such court.

The provision in the Act, as set out above, makes it very clear that any action by a public body within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman which could be regarding as hindering the Ombudsman in the performance of her functions is a very serious matter. Therefore, failure to provide the Ombudsman with information requested in a timely way is viewed by this Office as a serious matter and the Ombudsman would be very concerned about a trend that might suggest that the authority of her Office was being undermined by the failure of some bodies to co-operate in a proper manner with her examinations/investigations by (i) engaging in delay in providing reports/information or (ii) providing reports that are inadequate leading to further delay.

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