Jimmy Harte (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. The Office of the Ombudsman is probably one of the most respected offices in the country. In response to Senator Byrne, I do not think there have been any complaints about the office itself, which is a testament to the work of the Ombudsman. Obviously, some people are disappointed in their dealings with the office but there is never bad publicity about it. It is a very well respected office. It reminds slightly of the old television advertisement for Carlsberg when the employee goes to the room, finds it covered in dust, hears a telephone ringing in the distance, eventually discovers a dusty telephone in a dusty office and rubs down a sign on the door which says "Carlsberg Complaints Office". If the Office of the Ombudsman was in that advertisement, we would have achieved perfection but we do not have perfection in any walk of life.

It all boils down to customer relations, as one calls it in commercial life, or simply how one deals with the public. The nature of the Civil Service is such that it does not have the cut and thrust of commercial business which involves word of mouth. If somebody in a commercial business messes up, word of mouth means that he or she goes out of business. That does not happen in the public service, which is a good thing in some respects. An area with which I am most familiar is local authorities. They are sometimes an easy target for the public to hammer, be it over potholes, water, sewerage or housing. It probably all boils down to a HR issue when staff join a company or public body in terms of how they are asked to deal with complaints. Perhaps the Ombudsman is clearing up issues that should not have happened in the first place in many cases, but the Civil Service is such a big organisation. I remember speaking to a senior director of TNT Express, which is one of the biggest haulage and courier companies in the world based in Australia. Its policy was that when one rang the top guy in the company, one was put directly through and if he did not answer his telephone, he rang one back. The feeling at TNT was that if someone had to ring the head of the company, the complaint was serious and it was dealt with at that level. That feeling permeated the company. We have all experienced ringing Ministers', Senators' and Deputies' offices, as well as local authority and HSE offices, and being told somebody is at a meeting when we all know he or she is not at a meeting but sitting at the other end of the desk and does not have time to speak to us. It is an overall problem in society.

The remit of the Ombudsman must be extended to cover all public bodies because there is cynicism that there might be some public bodies that are not answering questions they are asked. The HSE is one example, and I have had experience of this with the HSE's Regional Forum West. Getting an answer out of it was like getting the third secret of Fatima. It was sent around the room and back again. Someone must be answerable and the buck must stop somewhere. The work of the Ombudsman has been very effective but it is worrying that 150 complaints are upheld per month, which equals 35 complaints per week and seven complaints per day. There is a fair bit of work involved in that. They are valid complaints and the figure of 3,600 complaints per year is worrying. If they related to a private company, it would not last too long.

The previous Government initiated this legislation and it is only coming to completion now. It is important in the current climate where the public treats politics and public life in a cynical way. It strengthens the power of the public to know that someone is fighting on its behalf. Rather than closing doors, the Ombudsman can open one. The experience the Ombudsman gives back to the public in rapping public bodies on the knuckles is important.

Otherwise the public service will be treated with contempt. The Ombudsman has increased people's ability to get through the system. She has good powers. I welcome any extension of the powers. Obviously there are other organisations that should be included but that issue will be discussed on Committee Stage.