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The other issue we’ve heard about is that funding of the office helps to
secure its independence and in the best arrangements that funding is
provided by the parliament and not by the governments. In Ireland the
ombudsman appointed by the president following a recommendation
passed by the parliament. And such appointment can be proceeded by
consideration by committee of a person proposed to be appointed as
ombudsman and indeed appeared before a committee of the parliament
before being appointed. Under the Irish legislation the ombudsman may
be removed from office by the president but cannot be removed from
office except for stated misbehavior which thus manage to avoid and
incapacity or bankruptcy and then only when there is a resolution passed
by both houses of the parliament. That is common to many jurisdictions
and important in securing the independence of the office.
Where the legislation in Ireland says that the ombudsman will be
independent in the performance of his functions I am obliged to
report annual rate the houses of parliament on the performance my
duties. I may also from time to time lay investigational or other reports
before houses as I see fit. Furthermore if following an investigation I
make recommendations to review the body and its responses not in
my view satisfactory I can lay a special report before the Houses of
the Oireachtas. However the ombudsman legislation does not specify
what action the parliament must take if I lay a special report and that
is quite important as we’ve seen in Ireland and elsewhere.
The Office of the Ombudsman in Ireland has been operating since 1984
and has dealt with over 90,000 complaints to date. In that time the
ombudsman is funded necessary to lay only four special report before
the Houses of Parliament which means that out of all of the other cases
only four of them have led to situations for bodies in jurisdiction have
not immediately agreed to implement the recommendations. That is
typical of some ombudsman where many of their recommendations
are implemented as a matter of course by public bodies it partly shows
that the scope parliament works because government ministers do
not want to be held accountable for not doing what the ombudsman
suggest but it also I think partly demonstrates that the situation when
reports are not upheld is quite critical.
Now, I want to talk not in detail on all of those reports but just to say
a little about some of them, one of them was an issue about redress

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