The Ombudsman has criticised the passport service in his annual report after a significant increase in complaints, the bulk of which related to delays in processing first-time passport applications.
In his report released on Wednesday, Ombudsman Ger Deering said he understands that the passport service was put under pressure due to the pandemic and a surge in post-Brexit applications. However, he said that such delays were not acceptable and last year’s experience should not be repeated. He will continue to monitor the situation.
Communication was at the heart of difficulties with the passport office, he said. More complaints had been received in relation to passport delays so far this year than all of last year. People needed to be able to access information, he said.
A record 4,004 complaints, the highest number ever in the office’s 38 year history, were made about services provided by government departments, local authorities and the HSE.
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The 2021 figure is up 17 per cent when compared to 2020. The largest proportion of the increase in complaints was about local authorities, the number of which rose by 45 per cent.
The complaints mainly related to housing and planning issues.
There were 227 complaints made about Dublin City Council, 101 complaints about Cork City Council and 70 about Limerick City and County Council.
Individual cases are also highlighted in the report, including an incident in which a nursing home would not give a written explanation to a family after a resident with dementia was found 3km from the centre with facial injuries.
According to the report, the woman’s family made a complaint to the home following the incident, but the nursing home initially refused to discuss the case with the family, only later giving a verbal response.
The home refused to respond to the family’s complaint in writing. When the Ombudsman became involved, the nursing home also initially refused to provide information to the watchdog.
After further discussions, the Ombudsman found the home had carried out an investigation into the incident but the response to the family’s complaint had not been in accordance with its own complaints policy.
The nursing home later wrote to the family to apologise.
“Arising from this case and similar incidents, the Ombudsman has contacted the Department of Health with a view to making it a legal requirement for nursing homes to provide written responses to complaints,” the Ombudsman said.
In his report, Mr Deering said while the pandemic had highlighted the value of the public service, they “are not always as good as they could or should be, mistakes and poor decisions are made”.
He told both Newstalk Breakfast and RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that poor communication or lack of communication for the majority of complaints addressed by his office.
At a time when the country was going through a pandemic it was important “when something goes wrong” that people were able to contact public bodies “at the coal face”, he told RTE’s Morning Ireland.
The fact that some public bodies such as the Department of Social Protection and the HSE had managed to engage with people during the pandemic showed that it could be done even in challenging circumstances, said Mr Deering. He asked that bodies learn from complaints and make changes to improve as necessary.
