Housing and planning issues dominate complaints made to Ombudsman about Laois County Council
82 complaints were made to the Office of the Ombudsman about the local authority in the last three years
Housing and planning issues dominated the 82 complaints made to the Office of the Ombudsman about Laois County Council in the last three years.
Figures released to the Leinster Express/ Laois Live under a Freedom of Information request show 12 complaints were lodged about the local authority so far this year. This is in addition to 25 complaints made to the Ombudsman in 2023, 18 in 2022 and a further 27 in 2021.
Over the last three years 31 of the complaints lodged with the Ombudsman were discontinued, withdrawn, premature or outside its remit.
A complaint is discontinued or withdrawn when a complainant does not respond within a reasonable time to requests from the Ombudsman for relevant information or it has been established in the course of the examination/investigation that the complainant has not been adversely affected.
In relation to premature cases, the Office of the Ombudsman explained: "The Ombudsman can investigate a complaint once the complainant has made a complaint to the body or used the body’s appeals system. In some cases, the complainant contacts the Ombudsman before making a complaint to the public body. In these cases the Ombudsman advises the complainant to make a complaint to the public body and to contact the Ombudsman if they are unhappy with the response from the public body or fail to receive a response within a reasonable time."
In some cases the public body or the issue complained about is not within the Ombudsman’s remit to investigate such as a Clinical judgment or employee / workplace issue.
A total of 24 of the complaints lodged about Laois County Council between 2021 and so far in 2024 have not been upheld.
Thirteen complaints have been upheld and two have been partially upheld over that period.
A total of 81 complaints were completed and assistance was provided in 11 cases.
"Assistance Provided includes: The complainant has benefited from contacting the Office although their complaint has not been Upheld or Partially Upheld. A benefit to a complainant
might take the form of: - The provision of a full explanation where one was not previously given.
- The provision of relevant information, or the re-opening of a line of communication to the body complained about," explained the Office of the Ombudsman.