Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring:

As with any ombudsman, I would say that we could use more resources.

In respect of the past year, in light of the fact that we had oversight of an essential service, we were therefore regarded as an essential service, so we have worked throughout the Covid period. We were lucky that we were in a position to provide our staff with the means to work from home electronically very quickly. As a result of having investigative staff, a number of people already had tablets and laptops before Covid hit. Therefore, we have been able to meet the challenge by working both in the office and remotely. Our investigators have met with witnesses, complainants and gardaí throughout, in a socially distant and Covid-appropriate way.

Interestingly, the number of complaints and queries made in 2020 increased. There continued to be complaints about Garda presence because there was perhaps more interaction at check points or queries were made about where people were vis-à-viswhere their home was but, in fact, the increase was not down to Covid as such. Perhaps people have the ability and time to go online and discover they can make a complaint to various bodies via electronic means and the Internet. Therefore, complaints for 2020 increased. While we were getting complaints about Garda operational events, the complaint increase was not solely due to that.