Mr. Ger Deering:

We treat every complaint seriously because the fact that somebody makes a complaint to us means they are unhappy. Sometimes people are happy to get an explanation from an independent third party, if I were to put it that way. It may be the case that the body concerned has tried to explain to the person that he or she could not qualify for a particular scheme or whatever that was, and the person is doubtful of that answer. Sometimes, we investigate it and even if we do not uphold the complaint, we explain to the person:

Look, this is how the scheme operates. The body did what it should have done and did what it could do.

All those complaints have at their heart some dissatisfaction on the part of the complainant. I will not tell the Senator that everybody is happy with the outcome they get from our office. It ranges from people who get significant benefits as a result of our intervention to people who get at least an explanation they accept. Of course, I am sure there are people who will still be unhappy they did not get what they were looking for.