Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I offer my apologies. I was committee-hopping today as committees are coinciding. My colleague, Senator Fintan Warfield, was here to cover for me. Deputy Carol Nolan is very much involved in the issue. I was a member of the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions in the previous Dáil and Seanad, where we would have met with the Ombudsman on a regular basis. One of the reports done by that committee was on looking at the power and the remit of the Ombudsman. It made many recommendations about extending those. It might be worth looking at that report in the context of this debate. I appreciate the Bill is being brought forward in good faith.

From what I understand, a broader question has been alluded to in the debate which is that the power of the ombudsmen at the moment to do what they want to do, and should be able to do on behalf of the State, should be looked at. They are quite hampered and that report will feed into this debate and show that there are mechanisms to extend the powers of the ombudsmen. We need to ensure there is a mechanism available to anybody who has an issue with education to be able to bring it forward to one of the ombudsmen. I am not 100% sure and I am happy to listen to the debate, which I welcome, as to whether we need a separate ombudsman.

At this stage I would not be sold on that debate, to be quite honest. That is because there are certain areas that the children's ombudsman has been critical of, for example, including direct provision and children in that system who are trying to access third-level education. Therefore we should also examine that report, as it would give us an insight into another facet of the debate.

This matter needs to be taken on board because it goes down to a core issue. If a citizen wants to make a complaint it should be as easy as possible to do so. It should be clear where a citizen must go to make a complaint. We should also know that the person to whom the complaint is made has sufficient powers to deal with it and that the complainant can obtain redress. In this scenario we need to clarify that pathway.