Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)

I have one final point I forgot to raise earlier when I got carried away on my issue about the high earners. It is mentioned in the Bill that the complaint must be made within six months. Perhaps I am confused in this. What worries me are issues we have come across in legal complaints where a person is not compos mentis and there is a time lag or a complaint has been initiated by an elderly person who then dies. Perhaps I am reading this incorrectly. I would be slow in applying strict time constraints on a person who is under age where the complaint might not come to light for some years until the person attains the age of 18, or on a person who because of a mental incapacity is not capable of processing the complaint. Does the Statute of Limitations apply or has the ombudsman a free hand? The ombudsman should have a much freer hand than hitherto. We have seen where the Statute of Limitations in many instances wrongly deprived people of the right to make complaints regarding issues that came to light many years later or did not manifest themselves within the period concerned.