Areas of work

Welcome to the policy section of the OCO website.

The Ombudsman for Children Act, 2002 sets out the kind of policy work we do.

We can advise the Government on how to deal with things that matter to children and young people. We can encourage organisations to promote the rights and welfare of children. We also keep an eye on laws that affect children and advise the Government and the Oireachtas (parliament) on ways to make sure that the law protects children’s rights.

We have given advice to the Government on a number of matters so far, which include: providing greater protection for children’s rights in the Constitution, protecting children from abuse, how the criminal justice system deals with children, health services for children and issues affecting children in care.

We can also do research on any matter which relates to the rights and welfare of children. This means that we can look into things that affect children so that we can better understand the problems children and young people face and come up with ideas for sorting them out.