Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh na finnéithe. Táimid an-bhuíoch gur tháinig siad isteach. I thank the Office of the Ombudsman for the report. It is interesting for members to come at it from a different angle. Is Mr. Tyndall telling us that, in one sense, the report is a benchmark and that the Office of the Ombudsman is laying down the baseline for future data that will be the benchmark the office will use in measuring improvements in this area?

Has there been a change in the trend of complaints when one looks at complaints made a number of years back, or has it been similar? Is there any sense that part of the problem is that clinicians and staff are under such pressure that the way in which they handle an issue is not intentional but the result of not having thought things through and that if they had more space and time, they could do this?

Mr. Tyndall referred to 35 people a day dying in acute hospitals. Is that an increasing trend in the past couple of years? How many complaints point to a lack of services to allow people to die in peace at home with the support of their loved ones? Have cultural issue comes into play? I have been at a number of funerals in the past year or so, one of which was the funeral of an African child and I was quite taken by the difference in the way that they mourned their children. It was a very sad ceremony and very different from the traditional Irish wake. I am aware also that the Muslim community has a very different way of dealing with death. Perhaps as a nation we have been slow to take on these cultural differences.

The Office of the Ombudsman has instigated a report on a good death. Is Mr. Tyndall thinking of producing similar reports on issues about which he has received a number of complaints on a theme? We have mentioned the issue of direct provision accommodaton and prison services which are not necessarily under the ambit of the Ombudsman; therefore, he cannot conduct a specific investigation, but would he consider producing a similar report because there has been a series of similar complaints?