In a wide-ranging address, Ms O’Reilly made comments based on experience gained in her capacity as a statutory office holder as Ombudsman and Information Commissioner.

Ombudsman Lost at Sea report defeated by vote on party lines

A proposal to have her special report, Lost at Sea,referred to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, was defeated in a Dáil vote with members voting on party lines and subsequently a proposal from opposition parties that the report be considered by the Committee was also defeated, following a vote along party political lines. This Illustrates how deficits in our parliamentary and government arrangements can adversely affect the work of her Office, Citing the experience with the report she said Parliament in Ireland has been side-lined and is no longer in a position to hold the Executive to account.

She would have expected a Parliamentary Committee, following appropriate scrutiny,to reach the conclusion that her recommendation in the report that financial compensation of €245,570 be paid to the complainant in the “Lost at Sea” case, should be accepted and implemented.

Her Office has done, in its area of responsibility,precisely what the Financial Regulator was accused of not doing, in terms of failing to serve the public interest and rooting out maladministration in the banking system. She hoped that the Oireachtas would find a mechanism to allow the Lost at Sea report to be dealt with calmly and reasonably.

Role as Information Commissioner

The principal role of the Information Commissioner is to review the decisions of public bodies under the Freedom of Information Acts, 1997 and 2003.

Ms O’Reilly expressed concern that not only were some bodies not included within the remit of FOI but in recent years a practice has developed of removing functions of public bodies from the scope of the FOI Acts. While some 520 public bodies are covered by the Freedom of Information Acts, many, such as Nama, the Central Bank and the Garda Síochána are not included, while some previously covered have had certain functions removed, as in the case of the road safety functions now carried out by the Road Safety Authority.