Organisation information
Other amendments to the Ombudsman Act
Published on
Last updated on
Published on
Last updated on
From 24 August 2015 the Ombudsman’s remit was extended to enable the office to deal with complaints relating to the administrative actions of private nursing homes.
This order set the 7th day of July, 1983 as the day on which the Ombudsman Act, 1980 (No. 26 of 1980) came into operation. Read more.
Under this Order the Minister for the Public Service in exercise of the powers conferred on him under Section 10(4) of the Ombudsman Act delegated to the Ombudsman the powers under the Civil Service Commissioners Act, 1956 and the Civil Service Regulation Acts 1956 and 1958 as the 'appropriate authority' in relation to officers and servants of the Ombudsman.
This Act amended Section 4 (10)(c) of the Ombudsman Act 1980. Under this Section of the Act amendments could be made to the Schedules to the Act which listed the bodies which were and were not subject to investigation by the Ombudsman. Amendment to these Schedules was effected by Government Order (1st Schedule) and Ministerial Order (2nd Schedule) laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas for 21 sitting days. This amending Act provided that an Order would take effect when a resolution approving it has been passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas. Read more.
This Order extended the powers of investigation of the Ombudsman to Health Boards, Local Authorities, Bord Telecom Éireann and An Post with effect from 1 April 1985. The Order specifically excluded the Ombudsman from examining complaints in relation to actions taken "solely in the exercise of clinical judgement in connection with the diagnosis of illness or the care or treatment of a patient...". The Order also excluded the Ombudsman from examining complaints in relation to local authorities "when performing reserved functions within the meaning of the County Management Acts, 1940 to 1955, or reserved functions within the meaning of any of the Acts relating to the management of a county borough." Read more.
This order places the Postal Services Users Council, the Telecommunications Service Users' Council, the Rent Tribunal, The Mining Board and the Secretariat to the Commission on Social Welfare among the bodies not subject to investigation by the Ombudsman. Read more.
This order deleted Health Boards and Local Authorities from the Second Schedule to the Ombudsman Act 1980 and placed the following bodies in the Second Schedule i.e. not subject to investigation by the Ombudsman:-