Mr. Ger Deering:

Interestingly enough, with regard to An Post and previous iterations of the postal service, some people may remember that it was all part of the Department of Post and Telegraphs. When it was a Government Department, it did come under the office's remit. We dealt with complaints against telecommunications companies and the postal service at that stage but not since they have all been privatised.

On the question as to whether there have been efforts to bring them under it, my predecessor Peter Tyndall made a very strong argument that Irish Water should have come under the Office of the Ombudsman because that was a service that was carried out by local authorities until it moved. It did not happen anyway. Utilities are not within our remit.