OMBUDSMAN:OMBUDSMAN EMILY O'Reilly has begun lobbying the prospective leaders of the next government for an expanded role for her office following the general election.
In a letter to all parties and Independent TDs in the last Dáil Ms O’Reilly said her relationship with the Government had recently “come under some strain” arising from her investigations.
That strain arose particularly in relation to cases involving the obligation of the Health Service Executive to provide nursing home care for older people, and a scheme to award replacement tonnage for fishing vessels lost at sea, she said.
“It will be very important to restore the ombudsman’s relationship with government at the earliest opportunity,” she said.
She is seeking four changes which she said will give her office a “fuller role” in ensuring better government. Her office should have constitutional status, to place it on a similar level to the Comptroller and Auditor General; it should have a direct reporting relationship with a specific Oireachtas committee; there should be more transparent procedures for appointing an ombudsman; and the ombudsman’s remit should be extended to cover prisons, and immigration and asylum issues.
In relation to this last proposal, she said there had “never been any good reason” why these areas had remained outside the ombudsman’s jurisdiction. They were a central element of the ombudsman’s remit in other countries, she said.
The office since it was established in 1984 had received 80,000 valid complaints, including 3,894 in the past year alone. It had investigated many issues of “systemic significance”, its work had impacted significantly on the mindset of public servants, and it had identified fundamental weaknesses in governmental arrangements, she said.
However, there had also been missed opportunities, she said, when the ombudsman highlighted serious issues which, if dealt with at that time, would have saved the State from significant compensation having to be paid at a later stage.
“The illegal charging of medical card holders for nursing home care is a case in point,” she said.
Most of the changes she was seeking would require new legislation, she said, but would not involve significant costs and were likely to result in savings.
