Highest number of public services complaints in 30 years

Nearly 5,300 complaints were made to the Ombudsman last year about public services, which was an increase of 11% on 2024 and the highest number in over 30 years.

The Ombudsman investigates complaints about public bodies – including local authorities, government departments and the HSE.

Complaints relating to local authorities in 2025 jumped by 20% to 1,793 when compared with the previous year.

Of those, 248 complaints were about Dublin City Council, while 200 involved Cork City Council.

In his 2025 annual report, Ombudsman Ger Deering said because of the increase in complaints about local authorities in recent years, he has engaged with the sector to develop a standardised policy and procedure for dealing with complaints from the public.

Over 1,500 complaints were made about Government departments and offices, with the Department of Social Protection the most complained-about department (686 complaints).

Meanwhile, there were 861 complaints about public bodies in the health sector; 720 involving the HSE, and 110 about Tusla.

Last year’s complaints covered issues relating to social welfare allowances, housing applications, hospital services, private nursing home care and public third-level education services.

These included cases where individuals were wrongly removed from the housing list; an overseas pension was refused as a Government department sent the wrong medical report to the overseas authority; admission to a university course being refused after confusion over the nature of the person’s education qualification; and where issues arose in passport applications.

Of the 5,297 complaints made across 2025, 4,996 were investigated – an increase of 6% on 2024.

Commenting on the report, Mr Deering said he is “hopeful” the implementation of the Local Authority Complaints Policy “will improve service delivery and complaint handling by local authorities and so benefit everyone using their services”.