Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 8 February 2023
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised)
Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source
He is actually in the committee next week, so I can ask him about that. I had not put the two together. My other questions might be the same, but I will ask some of them regardless and see how we get on.
The Office of the Ombudsman, unlike the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, has the power to initiate its own investigation and it does not require complaints to be made to it by the public, which is a positive thing. As the Minister is aware, it is something that I had been raising previously. Would I be right in saying that the Office of the Ombudsman, if it is investigating the wrongdoing on the part of a public body, can only make a recommendation for redress and that the Minister has the power to veto an investigation? Is that correct?
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