Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 16 February 2023
Committee on Public Petitions
Office of the Ombudsman Annual Report 2021: Office of the Ombudsman
Mr. Ger Deering:
As the Chair pointed out, we provide the outreach to a number of areas, including direct provision. It is a logical conclusion that we will extend it to Ukrainian refugees but a problem is that until things settle down somewhat, their priorities may be slightly different. Very often we are dealing with people with whom we have to do a lot of work in advance so that they trust us. I am not necessarily speaking about Ukrainian people but those coming from certain other jurisdictions who do not have an automatic trust in the State. Even though our office is independent, we have to build relationships and work with people to get into the level of outreach we need to do.
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