Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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123. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a number of the judicial reviews against the Ombudsman have been settled on terms favourable to the applicants, including their costs being paid; if his attention has been further drawn to the fact that there is a backlog of complaints before the in house complaints procedure that have not been opened; if changes to the in house complaints procedure will be examined to ensure that it operates in a timely and effective manner to prevent needless and expensive court challenges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45182/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Office of the Ombudsman is a statutorily independent Office and, as such, my Department has no direct involvement in its in-house complaints procedures or in the handling of judicial reviews against that Office.

The Office of the Ombudsman has informed me that it was the subject of four separate judicial review applications in 2015, all of which had a common subject matter.

Subsequent to the applications the four cases in question were re-examined by the Ombudsman. Based on legal advice which the Office of the Ombudsman received it agreed to make contributions towards some of the legal costs incurred in three of the four applications.

I am advised that the judicial reviews referred to by the Deputy were not in any way prompted by in house delays in complaint handling in the Office of the Ombudsman. There has never been a judicial review in relation to delays in answering complaints.

The Office of the Ombudsman has also informed me that there are not and never have been any unopened internal complaints.

I have also been informed that in 2016 the Office of the Ombudsman examined 3,110 complaints.79% of these were completed within 3 months and 96% were completed within 12 months.