Mr Murphy says he regrets the Government's failure to extend the powers of his office to oversee hospitals, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent.
The failure of the Government to extend the powers of the Ombudsman's Office to investigate complaints against hospitals is "unsatisfactory", the Ombudsman has said.
Mr Kevin Murphy said the Government had again promised independent overseeing of hospitals in its national health strategy, "Quality and Fairness - A Health System for You".
"I regret to report that, once again, no progress was made in giving practical effect to this issue in 2002," said Mr Murphy, in his final report. He will step down in June and be replaced by journalist Emily O'Reilly, whose nomination was passed by the Oireachtas last week.
The office last year received 2,325 valid complaints from the public on their treatment by health boards, Government departments, local authorities, the Revenue Commissioners and An Post. In all, 2,880 complaints were handled. "Almost 50 per cent of the complainants were better off as a result of having contacted the Ombudsman," said Mr Murphy.
Over 40 per cent of complaints were made against the Civil Service, 21 per cent against health boards and just over a third against local authorities. Four per cent of the complaints were against An Post. Over 400 were made against the Department of Social and Family Affairs about problems with old-age pensions, unemployment payments, PRSI, child benefits and other allowances.
Five hundred complaints were made against the health boards, although almost 100 of those concerned problems with nursing home care for elderly people.
The Revenue Commissioners had 112 complaints made against it, 80 of which dealt with income tax problems.
Almost 300 of the 781 complaints made against local authorities were on housing disputes, while another 170 concerned enforcement and administration of planning laws.
Over a quarter of the complaints made against the Department of Environment and Local Government dealt with its failure to reply to correspondence.
The Department of Health and Children had an even worse record: one third of the cases dealt with non-replies, while problems on the drug payment scheme accounted for 25 per cent.
New procedures in place since 2001 have helped to identity complex complaints early and to ensure that resources are not wasted on issues that occurred outside the Irish jurisdiction.
Cases are being dealt with faster than ever, he said. The office had 1,514 on hand at the end of 2000; this fell to 960 at the end of last year. The Ombudsman issued 16 Section 7 notices in protest at "unacceptable delays" by public bodies in providing information requested by his inspectors. This marks a fall of three on the previous year and a drop of 39 on 1998, when Mr Murphy first began to publicise the number of offending organisations.
However, the Department of Education and Science's place at the head of the Section 7 list "for the third year in a row" is "an unwelcome feature", he said.
The Ombudsman issued a special report last year to protest at the Revenue Commissioners refusal to implement three of his five recommendations covering the interest due on tax refunds.
Following changes implemented last year by the Minister for Finance, the public will be entitled to interest payments on refunded taxes, if they claim within four years. Mr McCreevy also agreed to make an ex-gratia payment to the original complainants.
"I warmly welcomed this development and I very much appreciate the Minister's decision, in co-operation with the Revenue Commissioners, to pay compensation. I believe that the Minister has affirmed the proud record of the Office of the Ombudsman in having the authority of its recommendations recognised," said Mr Murphy. He paid tribute to the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and Public Service whose work had been "crucial to securing justice for the people involved".