Our job is to examine complaints from members of the public who believe they have been unfairly treated by certain public service providers.
The Ombudsman also examines complaints about failures by public bodies to provide accessible buildings, services and information, as required under Part 3 of the Disability Act 2005.
We provide a free public service that is open and accountable. We examine complaints in a fair, independent and impartial way.
Along with the Ombudsman and the Director General, we have a team of staff led by two senior investigators. Further support comes from our shared services, which include human resource management, finance, communications, and information and communications technology.
| Senior management team | |
| Ombudsman | Ger Deering |
| Director General | Elaine Cassidy |
| Senior Investigator | David Tang |
| Senior Investigator | Barry Quirke |
| Shared Services | Karen Roantree |
| Quality, Stakeholder Engagement and Communications | David Nutley |
| Legal | Aoife Drudy |
Ger Deering was appointed Ombudsman and Information Commissioner for Ireland by President Michael D. Higgins in January 2022.
Ger has established and led a number of public bodies and has considerable experience in consumer and employment rights.
He was appointed Financial Services Ombudsman in 2015 and Pensions Ombudsman in 2016. He became the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman when both offices were merged in 2018. In this role he led a significant change programme that resulted in many more complaints against financial service providers being resolved through mediation.
Ger was the first Commissioner for Taxi Regulation, where he introduced a range of reforms to the industry. He was the founding Director of the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) where he promoted compliance with employment rights and secured redress for employees who were denied their minimum statutory entitlements.
Ger played a key role in leading the Workplace Relations Reform Programme which created a two-tier user-oriented national workplace relations service that replaced the former five bodies.
He has extensive experience working across local government, community development, the civil service and the private sector.
Since 2019 Elaine Cassidy is Director General of the Office of the Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, which includes the Office of the Environmental Information Commissioner, the Standards in Public Office Commission, the Commission for Public Service Appointments and the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner. As Accounting Officer for the organisation, Elaine is head of staff, who are all independent Civil Servants of the State.
Elaine worked in the multinational IT sector for 15 years in an international management role, before joining the public service in 2008, as Head of Equal Status and Head of Mediation at the Equality Tribunal.
Following this, Elaine joined the Department of Enterprise, Jobs and Employment to oversee the enactment and commencement of the Companies Act 2014 and related statutory instruments. She then became Deputy Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman at the FSPO, which is part of the consumer protection framework in Ireland.
Elaine holds a Master’s in Public Policy from UCD, completed the Law Society FE1 Exams and is a qualified Adjudicator, a certified Mediator and a member of the Mediators Institute of Ireland. She also holds an LLB in Law from DIT and a BA in International Marketing and Languages from DCU.