Some people were put into "extremes of poverty" by the recovery of social-welfare overpayments, the Ombudsman Peter Tyndall has said following the publication of a new report today.

The state’s most vulnerable children are not benefiting from the economic upturn and use of words like “inclusiveness” and “equality” are sometimes little more than lip service, according to the Ombudsman for Children.

Grievances against government departments, local authorities, and health and social services dominate the thousands of complaints to the Ombudsman last year.

A complaint has been made to the Garda Ombudsman after a 15-year-old claimed he was knocked unconscious during an altercation with officers.

Police in the North have concluded that 619 people were in the queue or car park on the night of the crush at a disco in Cookstown.

A man has been refunded €750 after he complained to the Ombudsman about being overcharged for staying in two hospitals.

The Children’s Ombudsman has criticised delays in providing services to deal with the hundreds of cases of child sexual abuse carried out by children every year.

A bereaved woman told the Ombudsman that she was upset and confused when a doctor told her that he did not know when her husband’s “demise would be”.

A farmer gained over €40,000 from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine when he complained to the Ombudsman about his REPS 4 payments.

The Ombudsman received more than 3,000 complaints about providers of public services last year, including an increase in complaints about local authorities linked to planning and housing and 115 complaints from asylum seekers.

The Ombudsman received more than 3,000 complaints about providers of public services last year, including an increase in complaints about local authorities linked to planning and housing and 115 complaints from asylum seekers.

Children are being let down by public bodies such as the HSE and Tusla who fail to keep their best interests at heart and by a mental health service where psychiatrists are not routinely available to suicidal young people.

It took the bravery of a group of ordinary citizens putting their heads above the parapet and taking on the State to get justice for Magdalene survivors, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

The State Ombudsman has welcomed proposals by the government to accept his recommendations on the Redress Scheme for Magdalene survivors.

The Department of Justice has missed the deadline to respond to one of the Ombudsman’s key recommendations about the Magdalene Redress scheme.

The Ombudsman has said that people living in Direct Provision centres need to be given more support to work and resettle in their own home.

The Ombudsman received 97 formal complaints from residents of direct provision centres last year, with some asylum seekers claiming they were reluctant to complain about issues where they lived for fear of being labelled “troublemakers”.

Children’s rights groups have warned that many families still have to “fight the system” every day to secure adequate services, just as the foster carers of a girl abandoned at birth vied to get the full range of supports she needed.

Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, is to undertake a systemic review of the supports and services being offered to children in their care with a moderate to severe disability, following an investigation by the Ombudsman for Children.

The Ombudsman has been scathing of the Department of Justice over the Magdalene redress scheme and its ‘inexcusable’ treatment of survivors, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

An investigation by Ombudsman Peter Tyndall, has found that some women who worked in the Magdalene laundries have been wrongly refused access to the Magdalene Restorative Justice scheme.

The additional charges imposed by nursing homes are “impoverishing people”, ombudsman Peter Tyndall said yesterday.

A bitter nine-month behind the scenes row with the Department of Justice led the Ombudsman to launch an investigation into the “possible maladministration” of the Magdalene redress scheme.

The Office of the Ombudsman is investigating Tusla’s handling of child sexual abuse allegations.

The Ombudsman received over 3,000 complaints from the public in 2016.

Detectives investigating the suspected theft of sensitive documents from the office of the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland have arrested a man.

Complaints from asylum seekers can be investigated by the Ombudsman and the Ombudsman for Children.

The ombudsman has launched an investigation into possible “evidence of maladministration” of the Magdalene redress scheme by the Department of Justice and Equality.

Justice knows no bounds as a dog in Cork had to go to the Offices of the Ombudsman to get a fair trial, after he was wrongly accused of biting someone.

The Ombudsman and Information Commissioner is expected to call for an independent complaints body for prisoners today.

The public can now bring complaints about private nursing homes to Ombudsman Peter Tyndall.

The Garda Commissioner has been asked to investigate claims that two members of the force were involved in embezzling funds for a property deal in Romania.

One of Ireland’s top hospitals was preparing to carry out an unnecessary medical procedure on a woman’s spine after mixing her up with someone of the same name, a watchdog has revealed.

The Financial Services Ombudsman must reconsider a couple’s complaint that Danske Bank was not entitled to increase to 4% the variable interest rate on their mortgages at the same time the ECB interest rate was falling to almost zero, following a High Court ruling.

A 79-year-old woman who telephoned her son from her hospital bed to say she was dying was one of the worst complaints about end-of-life care received by ombudsman Peter Tyndall.

LET’S get Alan Shatter back his job. Let’s start a campaign here for a man who has been grievously wronged. Isn’t that the implication of the Cooke report into alleged bugging of the Garda Ombudsman’s office? Shatter was right all along. There was bugger-all bugging going on.

The former RTÉ boss who was in charge of dealing with complaints from the public about the stationwill take over as press ombudsman later in the year.

Retired judge, John Cooke, is to be called before an Oireachtas committee as part of its continued examination of allegations of bugging at the Garda Síochána Ombudsman commission (GSOC).

While retired judge John Cooke has made some pointed criticisms of the Garda Ombudsman in his 65-page report, he does so largely ‘in retrospect’ and in context, writes Cormac O’Keeffe.