The Ombudsman for Children can examine complaints about Government departments, certain schools, and public bodies providing services or making decisions about children and families or organisations providing services on behalf of the State. There is no official list of public bodies. This is to ensure that as many bodies as possible come under the Office’s remit. However, we have developed an indicative list as a guide.

Examples of Government Departments and public bodies we can look into are:

• The Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Child & Family Agency (Tusla)
• Department of Health
• Department of Education and Skills
• Local Authorities and County Councils

There are some public bodies that we are unable to examine – for example we are not able to look at complaints about the Garda Síochána as there is a Garda Ombudsman.

If you are unsure about whether this Office can examine the public body you are complaining about you can contact our Office on 1800 20 20 40 or email ococomplaint@oco.ie and our Complaints and Investigations team will try and help you with your query.

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