Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions

Ombudsman and Information Commissioner: Discussion with Nominee

4:55 pm

Photo of Fidelma Healy EamesFidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)
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Mr. Tyndall is very welcome and I wish him the best of luck. It must be humbling to come before a committee such as this. Mr. Tyndall has a broad range of experience, particularly service-based, which is an ideal background for this role in the citizens' corner. In his statement Mr. Tyndall said he uses complaints to improve services. That is very interesting. Does he follow up to ensure the service has improved and could he give us an example of that? We are all about reforming practices and improving things for the citizen.

I read that in Wales Mr. Tyndall sought to give himself power to extend confidentiality clauses to complainants and third parties so someone who disobeys the instruction can be found to be in contempt of court. Can he tell us about that? What was the background to that and why did he seek it? Would he seek the same powers in Ireland if his nomination is ratified?

Mr. Tyndall is familiar, as we all are, with the serious crisis this country suffered at the hands of the banking system. There is still much anger about that and we want to ensure that never happens again. Given the considerable investment in the banking system, particularly by the taxpayer, does Mr. Tyndall think fully State-owned banking institutions such as AIB, Permanent TSB and NAMA should be subject to freedom of information legislation? The Central Bank plays a key role in Irish society. Should it be subject to freedom of information legislation? The citizens trusted those institutions, which let them down. The Central Bank is particularly critical because we rely on it to be the watchdog over the other banks. Mr. Tyndall's views on those would be very welcome and, again, I wish him luck.