Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

One of the reasons we set up the Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions was to deal with the Ombudsman. The committee's role includes receiving reports of the Ombudsman which often went into the air in the past. The Ombudsman now has a point of contact with the Oireachtas through the committee. I would be very happy for a discussion to take place within it or at the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform with the organisations to which the Deputy refers, if either committee was of the view that this should happen. That said, I would be afraid that people dissatisfied with a planning decision would simply go down the road of making an appeal to the Ombudsman, as if that office could overturn planning decisions. That would not be a desirable objective.

See this speech in context