• You are here:
• Home /
• Press Releases

Press Releases

In the Public Interest: Lessons from the Ombudsman's Experience

Date released: 09.03.2010

In a wide-ranging address, Ms O’Reilly made the following comments based on experience gained in her capacity as a statutory office holder as Ombudsman and Information Commissioner.

In her address she:

Comments that a proposal to have her special report, "Lost at Sea", referred to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, was defeated in a Dáil vote with members voting on party lines and subsequently a proposal from opposition parties that the report be considered by the Committee was also defeated, following a vote along party political lines.

Illustrates how deficits in our parliamentary and government arrangements can adversely affect the work of her Office, citing the handling of the "Lost at Sea" Report laid before the Dáil and Seanad in December, 2009.

Says Parliament in Ireland has been side-lined and is no longer in a position to hold the Executive to account.

Says she would have expected a Parliamentary Committee, following appropriate scrutiny, to reach the conclusion that her recommendation in the report that financial compensation of €245,570 be paid to the complainant in the "Lost at Sea" case, should be accepted and implemented.

Comments that her Office has done, in its area of responsibility, precisely what the Financial Regulator was accused of not doing, in terms of failing to serve the public interest and rooting out maladministration in the banking system.

Hopes that the Oireachtas will yet find a mechanism to allow the "Lost at Sea" report to be dealt with calmly and reasonably.

As Information Commissioner, says that while some 520 public bodies are covered by the Freedom of Information Acts, many, such as Nama, the Central Bank and the Garda Síochána are not included, while some previously covered have been removed, or have had certain functions removed, as in the case of the road safety functions now carried out by the Road Safety Authority.

For media inquiries contact:

Dave Glynn - Head of Communications Tel: 01 639 5714 / 087 236 1884

email: david_glynn@ombudsman.gov.ie

Notes for Editors

Here is a link to the Ombudsman's speech, In the Public Interest: Lessons from the Ombudsman's Experience

Back to contents