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this again yesterday. Both of those reports were about schemes to
provide grants to people with restricted mobility, people with some
form of physical disability so that they could access motor transport.
Both of these schemes had a cutoff date of 65. Emily concluded
properly that the schemes discriminated against older people. The
government though didn’t implement her recommendations because
of the cost of extending the schemes to include older people and in fact
what actually happened because they accepted that the schemes were
discriminatory was that they withdrew them and no one had access.
But in that instance by then a new government had come in to office
and it decided that the ombudsman’s reports should go to a special
committee of the parliament whose job was to hold government to
account for not implementing any of the recommendations of the
ombudsman’s reports. So, now in those instances where ministers
refuse to implement recommendations they are called before a
committee of the parliament to account for their actions. It doesn’t
guarantee in the end parliamentary democracy has the authority for if
it chooses not to implement the recommendations of the ombudsman
but it does mean it can no longer be done without parliamentary
scrutiny and the very high levels of public scrutiny that go with that.
So, to an extent I suppose where it does leaves us, what it means is
that in Ireland almost every recommendation of the ombudsman is
implemented. There is only one really outstanding recommendation
and that remains to be I think it is one of those that probably never be
resolved that was the Lost at Sea scheme. But as a consequence of that
we now have a mechanism which enables the ombudsman to have
access to a parliamentary committee, if I want to discuss any item with
them I can call a chair of that committee and arrange a meeting. And
so we have an effective mechanism for holding government and public
service to account and it is a model which is seen in other democracies
and I think can be very effective in making sure that the ombudsman’s
recommendations are implemented. Thank you.

CHAIR: This is turning out to be an extraordinarily good session because
we have had two presentations well within the amount of time and I
am very grateful to Peter Tyndall for so doing. Let me again offer some
reflections on this issue. The issue of the relationship of ombudsman with
parliament of course is critical to the authority of the ombudsman and

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