Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I express my disappointment that Ms O'Reilly is departing. While I am glad for her, it is a loss for us that she is leaving. In my experience and observations of the Ombudsman, she has been a fearless champion of people's rights. She has done exemplary work and certainly will be a hard act to follow. I hope whoever succeeds her will live up to the standards she has set.

I seek the Ombudsman's comments on the relationship between rights and resources, which is at the heart of the issues she has highlighted regarding the mobility allowance and the motorised transport grant. If one establishes there are certain rights or a set of rights, possibly on foot of considering the circumstances of one group of people, and it then turns out that many others, in fact, have that entitlement, they actually do have it. For example, while they might not have been lifelong sufferers of a disability, they become disabled as they get older and, therefore, qualify for such entitlements. They have that right because one has established it as a legal right and there are two ways in which one can deal with it. One can either level down the rights or level up the resources. If we establish a set of rights, our absolute duty and obligation - unless we think we made a mistake in asserting that something was a right in the first place - is to find a way to match resources with the rights we have established. I believe the Ombudsman has exposed this challenge for Members of the Oireachtas on an issue that is very important for those who are involved but also more generally. This is something Members must do. If something is a right, it must be a priority and Members must find the resources.

I also believe the Ombudsman's point on the human face of the State, politics and public bodies is of huge importance. As she is leaving, the Ombudsman may be in a position to comment on the ongoing debate about parish pump politics, clientelism and so on. There is a debate on whether Deputies should simply become legislators who are up on high making laws and should not bother with the stuff that comes in through the clinic door. The Ombudsman's experience and the subjects about which she is talking are proof that this is not the case. This is not to suggest there is not a problem and there is not a tension between these two issues. However, it appears that one must begin with the human reality because were one to ignore it, one would get oneself into serious bother. It is human beings encountering the legal system, the structures, the procedures and so on that exposes the anomalies, the contradictions, the shortcomings and the challenges for legislators. However, I am interested in the Ombudsman's views in this regard because this is a big philosophical debate about which way politics should go. I certainly am of the view that Members should not abandon human beings because it is their experiences that point us in the right direction. While one does not want to have clientelism and one should not be doing favours for some people and not others, one absolutely should be championing people's rights.

As this is the issue or human reality that most often comes through my door and I see reference to quite a high number of complaints in the area of local authorities, I wonder whether they could say a little more about that. The biggest issue that comes through my door is housing. I do not know whether that is the Ombudsman's experience. In so far as citizens have problems with local authorities, the biggest issue is housing. Of course, much of it is merely to do with resources and officials who are managing a completely inadequate stock of housing and under resourced at every level, but then they are at the front line of the anger and frustration of citizens. I would be interested to hear whether that is a big feature of the complaints.

One aspect of that is the anti-social behaviour issue. That is a complex issue because the victims of anti-social behaviour must be looked after, protected, etc., but would the Ombudsman have concerns about the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009? Even an anti-social officer in my local authority area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown described the powers he held as draconian. I am not a legal expert but looking at some of the powers that these officers hold, I would have thought that in some cases they run counter to international human rights in that there seems anti-social officers have the ability to make judgments where there is no recourse for those against whom judgments are made as to their anti-social status. I wonder whether that is an issue that needs to be looked at in terms of asserting citizen's rights in local authority housing.

I commend the Ombudsman on raising the issue of the need to extend the ambit of the Ombudsman's office but, more generally, to extend rights to the area of direct provision, asylum and prisoners. I believe that in a few years' time the scandal that will emerge from what is going on in direct provision will be on a par with the Magdalen laundries. What is happening is shocking. The more I hear about it, I believe there is a category of people in this country who, essentially, have been put outside the normal standards of civilisation and rights. It is appalling. Consigning children to a childhood in a hostel is shocking. I commend the Ombudsman in that regard. I wonder has she anything to say to us about what we should be doing on that issue.

As she is leaving, is there anything else Ms O'Reilly wants to say to us about what our priorities should be? She highlighted quite a few. Is there anything else she wishes to say to us about issues that have emerged that need to be addressed urgently?