Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their most informative opening remarks. For me, the Irish Ombudsman Forum is an organisation with which I am newly familiar, so I read with interest the witnesses' correspondence to the committee.

I have a number of questions. First and foremost, I am interested in the number of cases that the ombudsman offices are dealing with on an annual basis. Ms Justice Ring said that 2020 was busier. Perhaps she could furnish the committee with more up-to-date information after the meeting.

The Office of the Ombudsman was established in 1984. Obviously, this committee is new but from 1984, what has the organisation's engagement with the Oireachtas been on annual basis, be it through annual reports or otherwise? Has engagement been very ad hoc? I note from Mr. Tyndall's remarks in September 2015 that from around 2002, engagement with the Oireachtas seemed to improve and become more formal. Today's step is most welcome, and it is great to formalise our relationship with the ombudsman offices. However, the MOU suggestion made by the witnesses is a very good one.

I am thinking about the expansion of this committee and, specifically, public petitions and those coming to us with their concerns, and, equally, others who approach the various ombudsman offices. How does that aspect fit into it? Obviously, an MOU is going to have to cover the approach to be taken if the relevant ombudsman office has dealt with a particular issue. Likewise, if the committee has dealt with an issue, the relevant office will not deal with it. I understand that. If we are going to go down that road, perhaps the name of the committee needs to be amended to ensure there is a formal recognition of our relationship with the Irish Ombudsman Forum. Maybe that is a discussion for another day. However, I certainly think an MOU is essential because I can think of several different elements to it, where the committee's work could really be blown out of proportion. How we go about that must be defined. It is a discussion that we have had as a committee.

I am going to quote from the correspondence the Irish Ombudsman Forum sent to the committee which states: "The Forum has also consistently argued for a single Committee to have an oversight of Ombudsman activity". That is where we are headed today and it is to be welcomed. Given the new nature of this committee, I ask Mr. Tyndall to describe the engagement of the ombudsman offices with the Oireachtas heretofore.