Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is something we will have to look at as an Oireachtas. I did not read all the reports but I read the two that were sent to me, including the most recent one.

A lot of the complaints and issues the office handles are what I would call industrial relations, IR, issues. As I previously said I am a former trade union official. It is not all of them, but a lot of them are. Some of the cases cited, such as the one related to sick leave, that is straight up an industrial relations issue but it has been escalated to the level of the ombudsman, which is a step up, for what would be an IR issue that should be resolvable through the processes. Are the internal procedures not there? The ombudsman said when he visits the barracks, he sometimes sits down with representatives from PDFORRA or RACO. I commend them and the work they do. Why can they not deal with the issues, specifically in relation to a sick note and sick leave? It is obvious if people get a letter from a doctor that states they cannot go to work, then they have a letter from a doctor. It cannot be superseded by somebody because they are a high up person or middle management person within the Defence Forces, yet that person saw fit to fight that case all the way. That is straight up an industrial relations issue, but it got escalated. It is on page 23 of the report. Am I missing the point that many IR issues get resolved through the procedures within the Defence Forces and only a very few intractable ones leave that process and come to the ombudsman?

On the example of the period of 12 months in the case of sick leave, let us say that matter dragged on internally because there was some internal back and forth and took a person past the 12 months’ timeframe, would the ombudsman take it from the date of the last interaction or incident or does it go back to the actual date of the original issue?