Ireland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1992. In 1998, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that Ireland establish an independent body to address children’s rights violations. Following efforts by NGOs and children’s rights advocates to establish such an office, the Government committed to establishing an Ombudsman for Children.

The Ombudsman for Children Act 2002 was signed into law by the President in 2002 and came into force in April 2004, establishing the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) in Ireland. The Ombudsman for Children is independent of the Government and is accountable to the Oireachtas.

Emily Logan was appointed by the President as Ireland’s first Ombudsman for Children in March 2004. Dr Niall Muldoon is Ireland’s current Ombudsman for Children. Niall was appointed as Ombudsman for Children by President Michael D. Higgins in February 2015 and was appointed for a second 6-year term in February 2021.

The OCO has two functions:

• to promote the rights and welfare of children; and
• to examine and investigate complaints made by or for children about the administrative actions of public bodies, schools and hospitals that have or may have adversely affected a child.

Since the Office was established in 2004 we have taken thousands of complaints about public services provided to children and have worked to achieve improvements on behalf of children in the actions taken by the State to respect, protect and fulfil their rights. We have also welcomed thousands of children into our offices from across the country to provide them with children’s rights workshops.

Some major achievements of the office over the years have been highlighting the issue of children in adult prisons which has now come to an end. We also worked tirelessly to ensure that children in Direct Provision had access to the same complaints system as other children in Ireland.