This Annual Report covers the fourth full year of my tenure as Ombudsman. My Office had another busy year in 1998 with the volume of complaints received and dealt with being broadly in line with those for 1997. As always, I am extremely grateful to my Director and staff without whose hard work this could not have been achieved. My special thanks also go to Fintan Butler and Aimée Tallon for their excellent work in preparing this Annual Report. My appointment as Information Commissioner, under the Freedom of Information Act, 1997, took effect from April 1998 and this new Office necessarily required a great deal of attention in its initial set-up period. My membership of the Referendum Commission also created considerable demands both on my Office and myself in the first half of the year. Despite this, I am very pleased that the work output of the Ombudsman’s Office did not suffer; indeed, the results for 1998 represent an increase in output of almost 5% over 1997.
I believe my Annual Report should not simply describe the work undertaken during the year but should also help promote good administrative practice. Every day thousands of administrative decisions are taken by the public service. These decisions directly affect both individual members of the public as well as corporate bodies and organisations. It is very important, as I have stressed in earlier Annual Reports, that public servants treat those affected by their decisions properly, fairly and impartially and that their decisions are taken in accordance with the principles of good and sound administration. But it is equally important that these decisions are seen to be taken soundly and that the public has confidence in public administration. Access to information under the Freedom of Information Act, 1997 will, over time, help to build up that confidence. But the best way for a public body to promote confidence among its clients is to operate an open and effective communications policy which will explain the reasons for, and the background to, decisions.
Many of the complaints which I receive arise because the public body concerned has not communicated effectively with its client. The result is that the client is not adequately informed and this, in turn, can lead to a complaint to the public body and, ultimately, to my Office. Problems in communication is the main theme of this Report and at Chapter Three I describe some of the complaints which I dealt with in the past year where communication was less than adequate. Effective communication is one of the fundamentals of good public administration and it requires constant attention. It is clear that the Ombudsman Act and the Freedom of Information Act will complement one another very effectively in this area.
I have also taken the opportunity, at Chapter Two, to reflect a little on the role of Ombudsman offices generally and on the role of my own Office in particular. This reflection is prompted by a number of considerations. Most important of these, perhaps, is that the Office has been functioning now for 15 years and some stock taking at this point is useful. Also, proposals to amend the Ombudsman Act, 1980 are to be considered soon by the Oireachtas. In this regard, some comparative material in relation to Ombudsman offices internationally, and particularly elsewhere in Europe, should be of interest.
At Chapter Four I present accounts of my examination of a selection of complaints dealt with during the year. In presenting these accounts I have tried to identify the principle of good administration, or the point of good practice, raised by each of the cases. Finally, at Chapter Five I set out some details on the work of the Office during 1998 including statistical data and analysis of cases handled.