A total of 1,778 complaints were submitted to the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) last year concerning children’s public services, reports RTE.
The OCO’s most recent annual report notes that complaints grew “more complex” in 2025, with 15% involving more than one agency, reports RTE.
Of the 1,552 individual complaints received, 81% were submitted by parents and 4% directly by children.
Education (31%), Tusla (20%) and health services (14%) were the most frequently cited areas of concern, consistent with figures from the previous year, reports RTE.
Of education complaints, 15% related to primary schools and 10% to secondary schools.
The most commonly raised issues were Special Educational support, bullying and complaints about school management, reports RTE.
Further complaints covered school transport, the Department of Education, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) and the State Examinations Committee.
Tusla-related complaints centred on children in Special Emergency Arrangements (SEAs), Special Care and residential care settings, interagency working, Education Support Services (TESS), access to interventions and support, and concerns from young people about how their complaints were handled, reports RTE.
Those who raised concerns about children’s health services pointed to access issues with Children and Adult Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
There were also complaints about children remaining in hospital beyond medical necessity and difficulties accessing dental care and other HSE-funded services, reports RTE.
The OCO continued to receive complaints about a lack of access to Assessment of Need. In 2025, 2% of complaints involved Children’s Health Ireland (CHI).
The office engaged with more than 2,500 children over the course of the year through rights education workshops, school visits and outreach activities nationwide, reports RTE.
These included visits to International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) and Direct Provision centres, CAMHS services and centres accommodating unaccompanied children.
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3% of complaints to the OCO last year concerned IPAS, covering issues such as poor living conditions, food quality and complaint handling, reports RTE.
In terms of housing, 6% of complaints involved local authorities and the Department of Housing, primarily relating to inadequate access to appropriate housing for children with disabilities, poor housing quality, waiting lists and emergency accommodation, reports RTE.
2025 saw a Government commitment to develop a dedicated Child and Family Homelessness Action Plan, to address “the unacceptable levels of child and family homelessness.”
Support for child defendants in the courts was also introduced last year following engagement between the OCO and children at Oberstown Children’s Detention Campus, reports RTE.
Children were additionally incorporated into the regulatory framework for homecare support packages, a development expected to make a substantial difference for those with complex healthcare needs and their families.
The report features case studies including ‘Zach’, a disabled young boy anxious about losing his SNA who had been trained specifically for his needs, reports RTE.
‘Rebecca’ and ‘Paul’, aged four and five, also feature in the report after they experienced lengthy delays in having mould problems addressed in their Approved Housing Body (AHB) home.
Thirty-four years after the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into Irish law, the Ombudsman for Children has called for its full incorporation, reports RTE.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh, the Ombudsman said his office examined the whole system — health, education and concerns about Tusla.
“Broadly we are looking at a lot of resources [that] are missing… we really want to challenge the Government to look at their budgeting system around a lot of these areas,” Dr Muldoon said, reports RTE.
He noted that Tusla had developed “a well thought out business plan for their pre-Budget submission” over each of the past five years.
However, he said the agency received just 48% of what it had requested, leaving it with “a €100m hole every year for the last five years on what they planned to do,” reports RTE.
He said Tusla is now operating at a significant funding disadvantage.
“Money being spent on education will actually save money in Social Protection later on as children become more self-determined and independent,” he added, reports RTE.
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