The Ombudsman received 180 complaints from people in Galway including 21 about Galway City Council and 38 about Galway County Council, according to the Ombudsman Annual Report 2020. Meanwhile, there were four complaints about the National University of Ireland Galway.
The report published yesterday (Wednesday ), found that complaints about public services such as those provided by Government departments, local authorities and the HSE, remained high in 2020 despite the pandemic.
In total, the Ombudsman received 3,418 complaints from the public last year, a drop of six per cent from the 2019 figures.
Speaking at the publication of his annual report for 2020 yesterday, Ombudsman Peter Tyndall also announced that this will be his final annual report as he will be retiring from his position after almost eight years as Ombudsman.
Government departments and offices, which include the Department of Social Protection, were the largest source of complaints to the Ombudsman in 2020 (32 per cent ), followed by local authorities (26 per cent ), and the health and social care sector (18 per cent ).
The Ombudsman expressed his concern about the continued reliance on congregated settings in Ireland - an issue highlighted in his recent investigation into the placement of younger people in nursing homes.
“COVID has shown us how flexible and capable our public services can be in a crisis,” he said. “We need to bring that urgency and ‘can do’ philosophy to tackling issues with congregated settings including those for people with disabilities and applicants for international protection. That would be a heart-warming legacy from a grim year.”
There were 735 complaints about the Department of Social Protection, including 126 complaints about the Pandemic Unemployment Payment. Most of the complaints about the PUP were about arrears of payments to applicants after the Department received more than a million applications, some of which were repeat applications as a result of people moving in and out of employment. The Ombudsman said that while it had taken time for the Department to pay the arrears, he was satisfied that appropriate systems were put in place to deal with the issue.
The Ombudsman’s annual report for 2020 is available at www.ombudsman.ie
