Mr. Ger Deering:

I am pleased to have the opportunity today to present the Ombudsman’s annual report for 2023 and 2024 along with my colleague, Siobhán O’Donoghue. The year 2024 marked the 40th anniversary of the Office of the Ombudsman. Therefore, last year presented an excellent opportunity to take stock of the work, achievements and the developments of the office over the past 40 years.

Since its establishment, the Office of the Ombudsman has been to the fore in delivering social change by promoting fairness and inclusion and delivering improvements in the delivery of public services. We have dealt with a broad range of matters relating to the everyday lives and indeed deaths of citizens and people living in Ireland. The office has been at the forefront in challenging biases, improper discrimination and inappropriate attitudes. Some of these challenges are as great today as they were at any time in the past 40 years. The impact of the office since its establishment has been impressive and extensive. The complaints and issues we deal with are a microcosm of our broader society. We have addressed and rectified a broad range of unfairness and exclusion.

I will turn now to the specific work undertaken by my office in 2023 and 2024. I spoke to the committee last year about our outreach programme aimed at increasing awareness across all areas of society about who we are, what we do and how people can reach us. We do this through national and local media, regional complaint clinics, public participation networks and engagement with community, voluntary and social inclusion groups. The success of this outreach is evidenced by the ever-increasing number of complaints and inquiries we are receiving.

In 2023, my office received 4,465 complaints, which increased to 4,778 in 2024, representing a 7% increase. In 2023, we responded to 8,171 enquiries, which increased to 8,890 in 2024, representing an almost 9% increase. As I have voiced previously to this committee, I see these figures not just as engagements with the public but rather as efforts from my staff to help and assist 13,500 people in total in 2024.

I will now outline the specific numbers of complaints in each sector in 2023 and 2024. Local authority complaints accounted for the highest proportion of complaints received by my office in both years. I accept that this sector encapsulates a wide range of areas, including housing, planning and road-related complaints. With the ongoing housing issues which have impacted and continue to impact on every aspect of our society, it is not surprising that housing complaints made up approximately 60% of all local authority complaints in both years. This is why I published an own initiative investigation report focused on the housing assistance payment scheme, HAP, earlier this month. I will speak in more detail on this later. We have also developed a model complaint handling procedure, specifically for use by local authorities, and we are engaging with the Local Government Management Agency to ensure its successful roll-out and implementation across all local authorities with a view to improving the consistency of the service the public receives from local authorities.

The sector that received the second highest number of complaints in both 2023 and 2024 was Government Departments and offices, with 1,397 complaints received in 2024. This sector includes, among others, complaints about the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Foreign Affairs, as was, which both have high volumes of transactions. Both Departments accounted for the largest number of complaints in this sector.

The sector that had the third highest number of complaints in both years related to health and social care. A total of 839 complaints were received in this sector in 2023, increasing to 887 in 2024. These figures primarily comprise complaints about public hospitals, with 141 complaints concerning Tusla. In 2024, we completed our engagement with the HSE on our In Sickness and in Debt report, which detailed our investigation into the administration by the HSE of schemes that fund necessary medical treatment in the EU, EEA or the UK. It is fair to say that both the report and its subsequent implementation have been a success. Patients who were previously denied payments due to bureaucratic issues have now received reimbursements.

Patients have been provided with access to a meaningful appeals process, which has in some cases led to an increased reimbursement. We have also seen patients who borrowed from family members to pay for the treatment receive reimbursements.

I again commend the co-operation of the HSE with this report, with all recommendations accepted and the 18 falling within the responsibility of the HSE fully implemented. I see this as a blueprint for positive engagement with our office, one that I hope will be replicated in future investigations and reports.

I want to take this opportunity to note the renewed focus that my office placed on our role under the Disability Act last year. Under that Act, we can investigate inquiry officers’ reports on complaints made to public bodies under section 38 of the Disability Act, primarily concerning access to buildings and services for those with disabilities. We have developed a new and bespoke Disability Act complaint form, which can now be accessed directly from the home page of our website. We took this step not just to enhance and improve our accessibility, but also to make it easier for those who work in the disability sector to signpost our office and to highlight the role we can play in assisting the people they support and engage with on a daily basis. As I mentioned at the outset, my predecessors undertook a number of important investigations that culminated in various reports and recommendations, and I have tried to ensure that the good work done will continue until real change is achieved.

A report, entitled "Wasted Lives: Time for a Better Future for Younger People in Nursing Homes", was published by the office in May 2021 on foot of a systemic investigation into the appropriateness of the placement of people under the age of 65 in private and public nursing homes. The report made a series of findings and recommendations, covering a wide range of issues. These recommendations were accepted by the HSE. However, progress has not been as expected or hoped.

I published an update on this report in September 2024 and I have since received further updates from the HSE. While the programme has successfully transitioned over 101 people to more suitable accommodation, the progress made has been slow. Very importantly, through the enhanced quality of life supports, EQLS, element of the programme, the programme also helped to improve the lives of some who could not transition out of the nursing home system. I also noted that a lot of good work was done in this programme to establish a strong framework to operate consistently moving forward. Most regrettably and frustratingly, however, the good preparatory work that has been done may be somewhat in vain, as I was informed that the programme could falter this year and into the future without appropriate ring-fenced funding. The lack of such funding means that many of those identified for moves to more suitable accommodation will not be able to do so. While a relatively small amount of general funding was available at the beginning of 2025, this funding was committed to specific transfers by the end of quarter 1. No specific funding was provided for EQLS at all in 2025. These are major setbacks for the people concerned, their families and those who have worked hard on the ground to make progress in this area.

As I noted in my annual report, it is completely unacceptable that this excellent programme, which brought hope and independence to people with disabilities, has an uncertain future because of lack of dedicated funding. Lack of funding is simply no reason at all to keep these people living inappropriately in nursing homes. A commitment from the Government to ensure sustainable and annual funding for this programme and EQLS is, therefore, essential.

Last year, I provided an update to the committee on a report, entitled "Grounded: Unequal Access for People With Disabilities to Personal Transport Schemes", regarding the lack of access to transport for people with disabilities. By way of background, as far back as 2012, the then Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly published the results of her investigation into the motorised transport grant, finding that the interpretation of the medical criteria for eligibility for the scheme was unacceptably restrictive and contrary to equal status legislation. The Government decided to close the mobility allowance and the motorised transport grant scheme to new applicants in 2013. These actions were taken as interim measures. Since then, a separate scheme - the disabled drivers and disabled passengers, DDDP, scheme - has become the only scheme available that could potentially provide support in this area. Sadly, the excessively restrictive nature of this scheme rendered it unfit for purpose.

My predecessor, Peter Tyndall, published the Grounded report in 2021, which outlined our investigations into the three transport support schemes, those being, the two mentioned earlier and the mobility allowance. Grounded highlighted the collective unfairness and inequity of these schemes. In my annual report for 2022, I expressed my concern that people with disabilities continued to be denied access to personal transport supports. Following this, the then Taoiseach established a working group. I have met a number of times with the Department of An Taoiseach seeking to progress the matter and I will continue to be consistent in the message that has come from this office for well over a decade now, namely, that we need fair, functional and flexible transport schemes for people with disabilities.

I recently received an update from the Department of the Taoiseach that its working group has proposed that a new general grant-based scheme be developed and led by the Department of Transport. I am also informed that the Department of Transport is beginning the development of this new scheme. It is a welcome development that, at last, a Government Department has been allocated responsibility for this very important matter. I thank the Department of the Taoiseach for finally progressing this matter. I am cautiously optimistic that there may now be genuine progress. However, my team and I will continue to engage with the Department of Transport to ensure that a focus remains on developing and implementing this new scheme.

We have just completed an investigation into the administration of the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme, an investigation prompted by a housing issues workshop we held with NGOs, and the complaints we had received about the HAP scheme at that time. My team carried out extensive research into the operation of the HAP scheme. They surveyed local authorities, holding in-depth consultations with seven of them, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive and the HAP shared services centre. They also consulted the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, representative bodies, civil society organisations and took account of the issues raised by HAP tenants and landlords themselves.

The report was published earlier this month containing recommendations aimed at reducing inefficiencies in the system, addressing the inequalities between HAP tenants and social housing tenants, and ensuring that vulnerable applicants are appropriately supported. I look forward to working with the Department of housing to ensure the recommendations are implemented with a view to making real improvements in the area of housing for those who are reliant on this scheme.

I will return to where I began: this office’s 40-year anniversary last year. I mentioned to this committee last year that we had a number of actions planned to mark this important milestone. President Michael D. Higgins hosted our staff at Áras an Uachtaráin to mark the occasion, with the President himself acknowledging the profound and positive transformations this office has brought about in the times since its establishment. In support of the diversity of our communities, we hosted ambassadors and representatives from more than 40 different countries at an event highlighting the role of the Ombudsman and encouraging them to ensure that their citizens who reside here in Ireland are aware of the services the Ombudsman offers. We also participated at last year’s Pride festival which had a strong theme relating to pride at work. We saw this as the perfect opportunity to highlight our role and our compatibility with the message of inclusion that Pride embodies.

In other actions, we developed and published a guidance, Human Rights: A guide for Ombudsman staff when investigating complaints, which also seeks to increase awareness and use of the human rights framework throughout the public service. We also compiled a commemorative book containing case studies and reports for every year that the office has operated since 1984. In December last year, we welcomed previous holders of the office of Ombudsman, Ms Emily O’Reilly and Mr. Peter Tyndall, and both our current and former staff to an event, to reflect on the history and transformation of the office over recent decades. There was a collective understanding in the room that the work we do is important and must continue and endure each year as vigorously as in the past.

I acknowledge the work of my predecessors and the former and current directors general and staff of the office for the positive changes achieved last year and for each of the past 40 years. We are committed to continuing to bring about positive developments. We will also continue to pursue with vigour Government and public bodies to ensure maximum access to public services that are delivered to the highest possible standards, particularly to the most vulnerable in our society.

I thank the Cathaoirleach and the members of this committee for the opportunity to be here and for their interest in our work. We are happy to answer questions the committee may have.