Maurice Hayes (Independent)

I would like to say a few words from my experience. What is needed in an ombudsman is an office that will deal with serious issues. We also want to inculcate into an organisation like the Garda a culture in which it will face up to and deal with complaints itself. My son was home over the weekend from Yale. He had been overtaken by a police car coming up to a junction and he reported this to the police. He got a very courteous e-mail form the Yale police department thanking him for calling the matter to its attention and informing him that it had been brought to the attention of the officer who had admitted it. I cannot think of any police force in these islands that would have given him that sort of response.

Organisations should be forced to consume their own smoke in the same way as large business organisations deal with dissatisfied customers. There is much to be said for allowing the ombudsman to tell an organisation that it should be able to deal with it itself and let him know the outcome. For the early years of its operation, the ombudsman should be slow to do that. I defined this in another report as being a policy akin to purchase and leaseback. As people show their ability to deal as an organisation with complaints, they should be allowed to do so.

I would prefer the Bill to leave this facility to the ombudsman commission, always remembering that the commission is required to report to a committee of the Houses of the Oireachtas on its operations. It would be a mistake to force the commission to launch a serious investigation of everything coming to its attention and would divert it from investigating the really important matters in which it should be involved.