THE State is not giving citizens enough information about the huge volume of "secondary legislation" flowing from EU directives, according to the Ombudsman, Mr Kevin Murphy.
Speaking at the presentation of his annual report in Dublin yesterday, Mr Murphy said complaints relating to the Department of Agriculture (20 per cent of the total) had now overtaken those relating to the Revenue Commissioners (11 per cent).
This was mainly due to the complexity of agricultural regulations coming from Brussels, and the Department's failure to tell farmers about them.
The owner of a chicken hatchery was forced out of business because he did not comply with new regulations governing trade in poultry and hatching eggs. He blamed the Department for not informing him of the new rules.
The Ombudsman found that the Department was guilty of discrimination, as it had informed the larger players in the industry about the new rules but not the smaller ones. On the Ombudsman's recommendation, compensation of £8,000 was paid.
Mr Murphy said the public service was finding it "hard to cope" with the demands placed on it by secondary legislation.
"It's not studied by anybody, it doesn't go to the European Parliament or the Dail here, and Government Departments here don't have time to look at all the regulations. Yet they're affecting huge aspects of life," he said.
The Ombudsman's report is published in Irish as well as English for the first time this year, an example Mr Murphy said he hoped would be followed by other public bodies. The full text is also available on the Internet at url:http://www.irlgov.ie/ombudsman/.
The report shows a slight decline in the number of complaints 2,879 in 1995 compared to 3,160 the previous year. Almost half related to Government Departments, while 25 per cent concerned local authorities, 13 per cent health boards, 12 per cent Telecom Eireann and 3 per cent An Post.
Of the Government Departments, the Department of Social Welfare was the subject of most complaints, with 49 per cent of the total for this sector, or almost a quarter of the overall total.
Mr Murphy welcomed Government proposals to extend his remit to public voluntary hospitals and many other public bodies, including FAS, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Blood Transfusion Board. But he warned that more resources would have to be provided to deal with the expected increase in complaints.
He said the proposed Freedom of Information Act would be an invaluable addition to the rights of the citizen" and emphasised the importance of a free flow of information in a democracy.