Ombudsman defends position in Bryson Irish language chief complaint - saying case is not 'exceptional'
Northern Ireland’s public services watchdog NIPSO has defended its decision not to accept a complaint about Stormont’s new Irish Language Commissioner – saying it does not meet the requirement of “special circumstances”.
Jamie Bryson had lodged a complaint with the body over comments by Pól Deeds, in which he accused the loyalist activist of having “poison and enmity”.
It was dismissed, with Mr Bryson advised to contact Mr Deeds directly in the first instance. The newly established commissioner’s office does not yet have a complaints procedure in place – and Mr Bryson has said he “won’t be asking Pol Deeds to investigate himself”.
He has said NIPSO need to accept his complaint or face a Judicial Review. However, NIPSO has defended its position – saying that the law places some restrictions on its authority and sets out the procedural requirements which must be followed.
The ombudsman said that the “complaints procedure of the public body must be invoked and exhausted before NIPSO can consider the complaint” – and while its has discretion where there are ‘special circumstances’, they are not met in this case.
“NIPSO does not consider the fact that a complaint is about a senior, or the most senior person in an organisation, meets the requirement of ‘special circumstances’. There are appropriate ways to deal with such situations which allow for a fair and proportionate approach to be taken”, a spokesperson said.
They added that public bodies should follow a two stage process – firstly to consider whether the matter can be resolve and if not, “apologise and seek to put things right”.