Defence forces watchdog criticises funding

THE Ombudsman for the Defence Forces has complained that the resources provided to her office are totally inadequate to deal with a growing number of complaints.

ODF, Paulyn Marrinan Quinn, also expressed concern about the delays taken between the time of an original complaint being made within the Defence Forces until her ruling on a case is upheld or rejected by the minister for defence.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women’s Rights heard yesterday that a sample survey by the ODF revealed it took on average 409 days for such a process to be completed.

Ms Marrinan Quinn told the committee it usually took 78 days to receive a response from the minister for defence to one of her rulings. On average, the minister upholds around 60% of the ODF’s findings, while rejecting in whole or part around 30% of cases.

Ms Marrinan Quinn said she was concerned about the delays because many of the complaints related to promotion, overseas postings and training courses.

She explained such delays often impacted on her ability to redress a situation and raised questions about her office’s effectiveness.

Ms Marrinan Quinn, a barrister by profession, also said she was “very frustrated” about the location of her current office which is housed in a Department of Finance building on Hatch Street. She told TDs and senators it was inappropriate, failed to serve the needs of her office and impacted on her ability to perform her statutory duties.

However, the ODF stressed she had been supported by the Minister for Defence, Willie O’Dea, in her efforts to find new offices and additional staff.

She claimed the ODF’s office needed to expand because it had already carried out a detailed examination of 76 cases in 2007 – a 191% increase on 2006 figures.

Under legislation, the ODF is obliged to be informed of all complaints initially submitted to the Defence Forces for internal investigation.

The committee heard the number of such complaints had already reached 165 by the end of September this year, compared to a total of 168 for the whole of 2007.

Ms Marrinan Quinn said she was worried at comments by Fianna Fáil TD, Michael Mulcahy, who questioned the €567,000 staffing budget of the ODF, as it only handled a small number of complaints about bullying.

Mr Mulcahy said many of the complaints appeared “quite mundane” and wondered if they could not be processed internally within the Defence Forces.

However, the ODF said it was wrong to assume her office had been established solely to deal with bullying, and she pointed out that the very existence of an ombudsman acted as a safeguard to prevent such abuses.