Irish people prove adept at complaining to the EU ombudsman

IRISH people are proving to be good at complaining at EU level when they have a problem.

The European Ombudsman’s annual report shows he received a higher ratio of complaints from Ireland than most EU member states, even though these totalled just 47 last year.

Among them is the first complaint dealt by the ombudsman’s office in Irish. It came from Stadus, Conradh na Gaeilge’s campaign to make Irish an official working EU language, which happened on January 1 this year. Last July, they emailed the European Council as Gaeilge lobbying for a new status for the language. However, 10 days later they received a reply in English.