Contact Information

The Office of the Ombudsman is open between 9.15 and 5.30 Monday to Thursday and 9.15 to 5.15 on Friday.

18 Lr. Leeson Street, Dublin 2.

Tel: +353-1-639 5600

Lo-call: 1890 223030

Fax: (01) 639 5674 Email: ombudsman@ombudsman.gov.ie

Annual Report of the Ombudsman 2003

27 April 2004

The Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, has today published her Annual Report for 2003. This is Emily O'Reilly's first Annual Report since taking up duty as Ombudsman on 1 June 2003. The Ombudsman reports annually to the Oireachtas and the general public on the work of the Office and on issues and cases of interest arising during the year.

The theme of her first report is "Assisting the Vulnerable and the Marginalised in Society" and it includes in Chapter 2 a number of cases where her Office has had a very real and positive impact in assisting people who are socially, economically or physically marginalised as a result of poverty, lack of education, ill health etc.

Her report also highlights her priorities as Ombudsman. She underlines her commitment to provide a high quality service to complainants in the following terms:

"As Ombudsman, I feel a great sense of responsibility towards those who feel they have been treated unfairly and who make a complaint to my Office. For many, I represent the final and only chance they have of getting redress if I find that the complaint is justified. It is vital therefore, that the service that my Office provides is as speedy, accessible, fair and humane as possible. We demand high standards from others and should be no less demanding of ourselves."

Main features of the Annual Report:

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Emily O'Reilly reflects on her first 10 months in Office and maps out her plans for the future development of the Office which are set out in the recently published Office Statement of Strategy 2004 -2006 which she has drawn up in conjunction with her Senior Management Team. It sets out her four main priorities viz.:

deliver a high quality service to our clients that is efficient, easily accessible, and that produces clear and fair decisions;
work with the public bodies and institutions within our remit to support them in achieving and maintaining the highest standards in their interactions with individual service users;
commit the experience and authority of the Office to serve civil society and, working together with those institutions and public bodies falling within our remit, we will seek to ensure that the public interest is properly served;
develop as a best practice organisation operating to the highest standards in the delivery of our services.

Chapter Two:

Emily O'Reilly elaborates on the theme of her Annual Report Assisting the Vulnerable and the Marginalised in Society

and reports on a number of cases relevant to the theme, including:

Tipperary Town Council refused to pay a Disabled Persons Grant to a woman suffering from Pulmonary Fibrosis to enable her to install central heating. The Council's scheme only allowed it to consider applications in cases where the applicant was completely immobilised. The Ombudsman was not happy with the terms of the Council's scheme because it was more restrictive than the terms of the Regulations which governed it. Following the Ombudsman's intervention the grant of �3,980 was paid.

Dun Laoghaire - Rathdown County Council was not in a position to pay a Disabled Persons Grant to a terminally ill man to enable him to adapt his house to make his accommodation more suitable because the tax affairs of the builder who had carried out the work were not in order. There is a provision in the relevant legislation to allow the Department for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, subject to the approval of the Minster for Finance, to approve the grant provided the applicant acted in good faith. The Ombudsman pursued the matter with the two Departments and the grant was eventually paid.

Individual cases reported on in Chapter Three include:

Department of Social & Family Affairs

A woman who was caring for a seventy-seven year old lady was refused payment of Carers Allowance on the basis that she was in full employment. The applicant had resided with the old lady for two years and provided her with full-time care and attention and as such she was not in full time employment outside her home. When the Ombudsman examined the relevant legislation she noted that it precluded payment of Carers Allowance to a person in full employment outside the home but was silent on the question of full time employment within the home. There was also the question of what constituted "employment" and whether the applicant was in fact employed by the old lady. Having considered the Ombudsman's arguments the Department agreed to pay the Carers Allowance and also granted arrears of �5,353.

Health Boards

A couple complained against the Midland Health Board about the treatment they received following the stillbirth of their baby daughter. They felt there was not sufficient feedback on the causes of the stillbirth and its implications for possible future pregnancies. In the circumstances the Board advised the Ombudsman that it proposed to carry out a Critical Incident Review which involved a detailed medical investigation of all the circumstances of the treatment of the mother before and after the pregnancy. The Review Group concluded that the stillbirth could not have been foreseen or prevented and also concluded that there was no clinical indication that such an event could recur. Arising from the case the Review Group made recommendations to improve the Health Board's Stillbirth Policy and the Board also published a Bereavement Booklet which was made available throughout other health board areas.

Local Authorities

A complainant was unhappy with Kildare County Council because she could not get precise details of her position on the housing list and she needed this information in order to decide whether she could commit herself to a new twelve month lease on her private rented accommodation. In the Ombudsman's Annual report for 1999 it had been reported that Kildare County Council was going to introduce a system which would enable them to inform applicants of their approximate position on the housing list.

Following the more recent complaint the Council agreed to introduce a more transparent points based system which would enable the Council to make a provisional assessment of points in respect of each applicant, subject to verification at the stage the applicant was being considered for an offer of housing.

Statistics: Chapter 5

Emily O' Reilly received a total of 2,213 valid complaints during 2003 compared to 2,526 complaints in 2002. In addition to actual complaints, Ombudsman staff also dealt with 9,496 enquiries from members of the public. Between valid and invalid complaints and enquiries, almost 12,600 people contacted the Ombudsman's Office during 2003.

Adding on complaints carried forward from 2002, which totalled 960, the Office had 3,173 valid complaints on hands for 2003.

Of the 2,359 complaints concluded in 2003: 383 (16.2%) were resolved; 43 (1.8%) were partially resolved and in 543 (23%) cases assistance was provided. In effect, 41% of complainants were better off as a result of having contacted the Ombudsman. As regards the distribution by sector of valid complaints received, 45.8% related to civil service departments and offices, 33.4 % involved local authorities, 16.4% related to health boards, and 4.4% to An Post.

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The Annual Report of the Ombudsman 2003 is available in pdf and html formats.

Further Information: Tom Morgan at 01-6395600, Fax 01-6395674, e-mail: tom_morgan@ombudsman.gov.ie

Note for Editors:

The Ombudsman - a brief guide (attached)

List of special reports (attached)

The Ombudsman - A Brief Guide