Findings

Having carried out an investigation under section 4 of the Ombudsman Act 1980 (as amended) the Ombudsman finds (See Note 1).

• that the Community Welfare Service of the HSE (acting for the Department of Social Protection) failed to implement correctly a decision of a Social Welfare Appeals Officer; that there was no proper basis for this failure; and that the failure caused significant adverse consequences, over an extended period, for the Kileni family;
• that, in particular, the failure to implement the Appeals Officer’s decision impacted negatively on the efforts to re-unite the Kileni family being made by the HSE Child Protection Service;
• that this failure reflects actions which were taken without proper authority, were improperly discriminatory as well as being otherwise contrary to fair or sound administration.

Note 1:

In its response to a draft of this report, the Department of Social Protection said that it "accepts that there was an unwarranted and significant delay in the payment of arrears inthis case as the officer dealing with the appeal did not ensure the Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO) decision was followed up in full." The Department also said that the SCWO should "have implemented the SWAO decision in full".