13 hours ago
Complaints to Ombudsman rose 30% in five years to 2024
The number of complaints to the Ombudsman rose by over 30% between 2019 and 2024, according to its latest annual report.
Last year, almost 1,500 complaints out of a total of 4,478 were about local authorities. Almost 1,400 related to Government departments and offices.
The Department of Social Protection was the subject of over 600 complaints.
There were 887 complaints about public bodies in the health sector with 705 involving the HSE and 149 about the child and family agency Tusla.
The Ombudsman Ger Deering used the annual report as an opportunity to call on the Government to provide funding to support younger people in nursing homes and, where appropriate, move them to more suitable accommodation.
Following an investigation by the Ombudsman in 2021, the HSE set up an 'under-65 programme' and successfully transitioned over 100 people to more suitable accommodation.
The scheme - according to the report - also "improved the lives" of those who could not transition out of nursing homes.
'Completely unacceptable' scheme cannot be delivered - Ombudsman
However, the HSE has said that there is insufficient funding to continue to assist many of the young people to move to more appropriate accommodation or to continue the programme.
Mr Deering described as "completely unacceptable", that the programme, which brought hope and independence to people with disabilities "cannot be delivered because of a lack of funding".
When it comes to supporting disabled people to access transport, he welcomed a commitment from the Department of Transport to develop a new scheme.
The Ombudsman has noted that over the last 13 years, he and his two predecessors highlighted the lack of appropriate supports for people with disabilities since the Mobility Allowance and the Motorised Transport Grant were closed to new applicants.
He expressed cautious optimism that "a long-standing injustice" was about to be righted, adding that, progress would be closely monitored.
Department of Social Protection complaint
A number of complaints have been highlighted in the report including one where the Department of Social Protection mistakenly recalled payment from a deceased carer's account.
'Anne' contacted the Ombudsman after the department recalled a payment of over €2,700 it incorrectly believed it had paid to the bank account of her son and carer, Martin, who had recently died.
Anne and her family contacted the department several times over a 12-month period to highlight the error and get a refund, but the Department refused.
It emerged that while Anne had notified the Department of her son's death, the department had attempted to continue to pay Carer's Allowance and a Carer's Support Grant into Martin's account.
As his account had been closed, the bank automatically returned any payments to the department.
However, the department did not know that the payment had been returned and also recalled the payment which meant that the money left Martin's bank account in error.
This error arose as the Department had not updated the returned payments to its account, and therefore believed that Martin had received the payment.
The department apologised to Anne for the error and refunded the money it had incorrectly retrieved.
It also agreed to pay a Carer's Support Grant of €1,850 to Anne's family as a goodwill gesture but also as Martin would have met the conditions of that Grant before his death.
In another instance, 'Fiona' had a poor experience in the Coombe Hospital in Dublin when her child was born and was extremely upset and felt traumatised by the experience.
While she had initially raised concerns with the hospital ended up making a formal complaint to the hospital two years later.
However, the hospital refused to deal with the matter as it was outside the time limit for making complaints.
The Heath Act, 2004, includes a 12-month time limit for making complaints. However, it also provides for the extension of the time limit where special circumstances make it appropriate to do so.
The Ombudsman queried whether the hospital had considered using its discretion in this case.
In response, the hospital offered to meet Fiona who wanted a written response.
According to the report, the hospital issued a comprehensive and empathetic letter which Fiona felt resolved the issues for her.
The Ombudsman raised a similar issue to Fiona's in his annual report for 2023.
Ot has led him to call on all public bodies - particularly those in the health sector - to be mindful that some people may not be in a position to make a complaint within a specific timeframe for a variety of reasons, including feeling upset or traumatised.
In such cases he said the body should consider using its discretion to deal with the complaint.
'Andrew' contacted the Ombudsman when his mother's belongings, including her dentures and shoes, went missing during her time in St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin.
The hospital told him that it had no record of the items being with his mother when she was admitted.
However, the Ombudsman discovered evidence that both the woman's dentures and shoes were with her when she was in the hospital.
An initial report from the hospital's speech and language therapist showed that Andrew's mother had no issues eating, while a subsequent report highlighted that she was having difficulty eating and was missing some teeth.
The Ombudsman also uncovered a therapist's report that said she had difficulty "putting on her shoes".
The hospital apologised to Andrew and his mother and reimbursed them for the value of the items lost.
