Some injustices have become "endemic" in the public service and are alienating citizens from the State, the Ombudsman, Mr Kevin Murphy, has said. They include regulations made by ministers and Departments which would be controversial if raised in the Dail, he told guests at an Institute of Public Administration function in Dublin yesterday.
He especially criticised a regulation concerning nursing-home grants, which assumed that children were obliged to support their parents, although the Oireachtas had never considered any such proposal.
A regulation made in 1993 allows health boards to reduce nursing-home grants to elderly people if their children are in a position to contribute to the cost. The reduction is made even if the children are contributing nothing, he said.
"As far as I am aware, there is no statutory obligation on children to support their elderly parents," Mr Murphy said. "The Health (Nursing Homes) Act does not create any such obligation and, from my reading of it, there is nothing in that Act to suggest such an obligation.
"It may or may not be desirable that children should support their elderly parents. I believe that in Germany, for example, there is some such obligation. Whether or not we should have such a provision is a matter for the Oireachtas. "What concerns me here is that the Minister and his Department appear to have created a de-facto obligation to support as between children and their elderly parents without any discussion on this issue in the Houses of the Oireachtas, thereby avoiding effective accountability."
Mr Murphy criticised public bodies, especially local councils and health boards, for attempting to steer disputes which might result in compensation towards the courts rather than to the Ombudsman.
"There is almost a knee-jerk reaction to the effect that this matter is more appropriate to the courts than to the Ombudsman." Mr Murphy also complained that his office was not seen as having a role in relation to human rights, including the rights of refugees.