Organisation information
Office of the Ombudsman – Public Sector Duty Re-Assessment and Action Plan 2026
Published on
Last updated on
All public sector bodies have a duty to eliminate discrimination, promote equality, and protect the human rights of both their staff and those to which they provide services. This obligation is set out under Section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014. Section 42(2) of the Act requires a public body to assess the human rights and equality issues that are relevant to its functions and purpose, and to set out a plan to address these issues.
The purpose of this document is to set out a re-assessment of our Office’s Public Sector Duty (PSD) commitments. In undertaking and documenting this re-assessment we have evaluated what has been done to date and what remains to be done from our previous PSD action plan. We have identified new areas where human rights and equality issues could be improved further. This is reflected in our revised Action Plan for 2026-2029.
Our Office is an unusual one, comprising six different statutory bodies. References in this document to “Our Office” collectively refers to the individual statutory bodies listed below.
• Office of the Ombudsman ;
• Office of the Information Commissioner;
• Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information
• Protected Disclosure Commission
• Commission for Public Service Appointments
• Standards in Public Office Commission
The Ombudsman, Mr Ger Deering, is also the Information Commissioner, the Commissioner for Environmental Information and the Protected Disclosures Commissioner. The Ombudsman is an ex-officio member of both the Commission for Public Service Appointments and the Standards in Public Office Commission. Our Office provides the secretariat for both Commissions.
Our Office is funded by one Vote and overseen by an Accounting Officer (Director General) who is supported by a Management Advisory Committee (MAC). We share office space (at 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2) and a “Corporate Spine” which provides Corporate, ICT, Legal, HR, Communications and other support services.
The Office originally established a PSD Committee in 2018 representing the different statutory bodies and corporate units. The Committee developed an initial action plan, which was approved by the MAC and incorporated into the Office’s Statement of Strategy for 2019-2021.
The Committee was re-constituted in 2022. The Committee carried out a re-assessment of our PSD and developed a revised action plan which was incorporated into our Statement of Strategy 2022 – 2025.
Our Committee includes representatives from each of the six statutory bodies and from our “Corporate Spine”.
Section 42(2) of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014 places an obligation on our Office to:
Assess – set out in our strategic plan an assessment of the human rights and equality issues it believes to be relevant to the functions and purposes of the six statutory bodies which form part of our Office;
Address – set out in our strategic plan the policies, plans and actions in place or proposed to be put in place to address those issues; and
Report – – report on developments and achievements in our annual report.
In re-assessing our Public Sector Duty we have carried out the following actions:
• When preparing for this re-assessment/action plan we met with IHREC and we attended an IHREC training webinar on the PSD Duty in Strategic plans.
• We reviewed the 2022-2025 PSD action plan and identified what actions have been completed and what actions are still relevant and yet to be completed;
• We considered developments since the last Strategic Plan e.g. the incorporation of the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner into our Office and developments in the wider area of human rights, equality and diversity;
• As part of the development of our 2026 strategic plan, we carried out an external consultation process with our stakeholders. We issued a survey for each of the six statutory bodies which contained 10 specific questions. The survey was open for four weeks and a total of 146 responses were received. Many of our stakeholders contributed to more than one of the surveys. One of the questions related to how the statutory body was implementing the PSD in their work. Responses received showed that the statutory bodies are implementing the PSD well or reasonably well in carrying out their duties.
• We also carried out an internal consultation process with our Office Holder (the Ombudsman), Commission Members, management and staff. As part of this process a staff survey and a series of staff workshops were carried out. The staff survey asked staff for their views on how the Office was carrying out its PSD and for any suggestions as to what improvements could be made. The vast majority (92% of those who responded) considered that our Office is implementing the PSD very well or reasonably well in our work. Improvements in facilities for members of the public visiting our office and the development of practical steps and evidence of how the Office of the Ombudsman is applying a Human Rights Based Approach to its complaint handling were suggested.
• Four staff workshops were held, to which all staff were invited. Approximately 120 staff (70%) attended the workshops. Staff input was sought through a series of breakout groups, one of which addressed the issue of our values and our PSD. The workshops identified a lack of awareness among some staff of the PSD and the Committee and also a difficulty in identifying exactly how the PSD could be applied to our work.
• The PSD Committee also consulted directly with the Senior Managers of each of the individual statutory bodies to identify any areas with regard to the functions and purposes of the statutory body which need to be considered/included in the PSD action plan for 2026 - 2028.
• We consulted with the Head of our Corporate Services Unit to identify any actions that we (as one of several tenants in a commercially owned building) could reasonably make to further enhance the accessibility of our built environment; (We need to do this)
• We consulted with our Communications Unit to identify any actions that we could reasonably take to make our communications more accessible;
A number of key objectives in our 2025 Action Plan were achieved including:
• the introduction of a human rights-based approach to Ombudsman complaints handling;
• a review of the effectiveness and reach of our TY Programme;
• improving the accessibility of our websites; and
• improving our outreach activities.
Having re-assessed our PSD we consider that the key objectives which informed our previous workplan are still relevant. Our 2026 - 2029 Workplan, therefore, has the following 6 key objectives:
1. An accessible workplace
2. Accessible communications
3. Accessible outreach
4. Decisions which respect human rights and equality
5. A workplace which respects human rights and equality
6. Workplace wellness
Some actions from our 2025 Action Plan which were not achieved, such as improving the accessibility of our built environment, are carried forward into our 2026 action plan. New actions such as making our office more accommodating for persons with autism and introducing actions to make our office more age friendly have also been included. Taking account of feedback from the staff workshops the Action Plan also includes actions to raise awareness of the PSD and how the Office is proactively promoting equality and human rights of staff and service-users.
Our Action Plan has been approved by MAC and is incorporated into the Office Statement of Strategy 2026 - 2029. Our PSD Committee will meet regularly to review and assess progress on the actions identified and will report on our progress through our Annual Reports and our websites.
