O'Reilly seeks new remit for medical, law issues

The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association and the Law Society of Ireland have rejected a call by the Ombudsman, Ms Emily O'Reilly, that her remit be extended to cover legal and medical disputes.

The call was made by Ms O'Reilly at a conference held in Dublin yesterday to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the office of Ombudsman.

Ms O'Reilly said that, while the office had been extremely successful, two of the most important areas - semi-State non-commercial bodies and the voluntary hospital sector - were outside her control.

She also referred to promises made by Government dating back to 1997 that the remit would be expanded to cover legal, medical and other areas.

"Seven years later, I'm afraid those proposals are still in the pipeline and, while I appreciate the many pressing legislative demands on the Government, I think that this anniversary year would be an appropriate time to expedite those relating to the office of the Ombudsman," she said.

Ms O'Reilly also called for the office of the Ombudsman to be written into the Constitution to ensure its independence.

Responding yesterday afternoon, the secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, said it would not be happy with the Ombudsman adjudicating on medical disputes.

While the association would have no difficulty with the Ombudsman dealing with administrative matters with the voluntary hospitals, medical disputes would require a certain level of expertise, he said.

Currently, medical legal disputes were dealt with by the courts where such expertise was available.

"We don't have a problem with administrative issues in relation to the voluntary hospitals, but there would be a problem with medico-legal claims," Mr Fitzpatrick said.

The director general of the Law Society of Ireland, Mr Ken Murphy, told The Irish Times the society did not believe it was necessary for the Ombudsman's remit to be extended to cover that body.

Mr Murphy said an ombudsman already existed in the form of the society's independent adjudicator.

The adjudicator operated "the most sophisticated, efficient and transparent system in Ireland", and justice was aided by a second tier made up of representatives of the social partners, as well as the Director of Consumer Affairs.

Mr Murphy quoted what he said were the words of the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell: "In my view the regulation by the Law Society of Ireland is the best regulation of any profession anywhere in these islands."

However, speaking at the conference earlier, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche, warned against bodies setting themselves up as ombudsman and said that it was important for the credibility of ombudsman offices worldwide that they were properly established by government.

While a minister wholeheartedly supporting complaints against his Department was "an unusual animal", he believed an ombudsman was absolutely fundamental to a good administration system".

Mr Roche said: "Nothing but good can come of shining the light of public scrutiny into the darkest recesses of public administration", and he would welcome a special ombudsman's report on local government, should the Ombudsman wish to make one.