Mr. Peter Tyndall:

Often our office resolves issues without ever issuing a report. There is an injustice and it is accepted and put right. There is no need beyond that to issue a report. When it is a matter of great public interest or where there may have been an ongoing injustice, then we will go to formal investigation and issue a report.

I will outline two recent examples. One report related to child protection and other matters involving Tusla. A second report related to the way health complaints were dealt with. In both instances, I launched the report with the head of the relevant service, whether Tusla or the HSE, because we had reached a point where the organisation in question accepted that something needed to be done and the head wanted to commit publically to doing it. Through that form of collaboration not only do we identify what is wrong and what needs to be done but we are able to demonstrate commitment on behalf of the public body or Department to put right the wrong as well. That was not possible in this instance. Committee members will have seen the correspondence, some of which forms an appendix to the report.