Mr. Peter Tyndall:

It is a global brand of course that has been around for more than 200 years so it does have a certain impact. One of the things we often say is that the important thing is that people know how to find us when they need us. The critical thing is that bodies dealing with complaints signpost members of the public to our offices. That is something we put a lot of effort into. For instance, I have recently agreed revised wording which all local authorities will use in letters when they receive complaints. In some ways, having a high public profile is helpful. It obviously attracts people to the office. Equally, even if we do not have such a profile, either through outreach or through signposting, it is essential people know how to find us. That is the critically important bit of it.

Coming back to the point about outreach, one thing Covid has taught me is that if a body is going to make itself accessible to groups of people who are less likely to be aware of the brand, the office and the work, then it must get out and talk to people to a much greater extent. We engage a lot with NGOs and we also provide regular training to staff of Citizens Information centres on the work of the offices so they can help people bring complaints. I mentioned about the role of Members of the Oireachtas in helping people to bring complaints to the offices. All of those elements help, but in the case of, for instance, people who are in prison, who are detained in mental health facilities, or who come to the State as asylum seekers and refugees and who may not have English as a first language, for us to sit in our offices and wait for them to come to us does not work. It comes back to the issue of resources. We need to rethink the model to the extent we extend our outreach to make sure we reach the groups of people who are often most dependent on public services and who are possibly least likely to be well placed to complain. That is an answer to a slightly different question but it is an important development we need to build on in the years ahead.