Sacked Air Corps officer alleged bullying
ONE member of the Defence Forces accounted for almost all of the complaints of bullying or inappropriate behaviour lodged with the Ombudsman in the past year.
Ombudsman Paulyn Marrinan Quinn disclosed yesterday that 27 out of the 31 complaints in that category were filed by a single person.
She would not comment on the identity of the complainant but it was later confirmed that the claims were made by Air Corps officer Comdt Nile Donohoe (47), who was dismissed from the Defence Forces last week.
He had been found guilty of using threatening or insulting language to a superior officer and became the first officer to be sacked in more than 20 years.
A court martial heard he had called his superior officer "a little prick".
Mr Donohoe is to appeal his sentence and conviction.
Ms Marrinan Quinn said she had been unable to deal with those complaints until other military procedures had been completed.
At the launch of her annual report in Dublin yesterday, she said she had not found in favour of any of the other four complainants, although she informed two of them that they had been justified in bringing forward their cases.
Bullying and inappropriate behaviour comprised almost a third of the 105 complaints.
Another 37 were linked to selection procedures for promotion, 14 to selection for career courses and 11 for career-related administration procedures.
Ms Marrinan Quinn upheld 74pc of the complaints. She was critical of the delays taken by the Minister for Defence in responding to her findings.
She pointed out that the average response took 129 days -- more than four months -- an increase of 40 days on the previous year.
The Ombudsman also said she could not explain why the delays were so long -- but she understood that the minister consulted with the military authorities after receiving her findings.
A statement later from the Department of Defence said every effort was made to respond to the Ombudsman's reports as quickly as possible and within available resources.
"However, the complexity of some of the cases, as well as the size and diverse nature of the military organisation, can mean that it sometimes takes longer than anticipated to respond comprehensively and accurately to such reports."
Bullying
The department said it was working with the Ombudsman and the military to improve response times and, as a result, the gap between recent reports and responses had been reduced from 16 to eight weeks.
As in previous years, there were no complaints to the Ombudsman concerning sexual harassment in 2009.
Ms Marrinan Quinn said there was now significant support by the military authorities and the minister for her recommendations for promotion boards to use a marking system to ensure that candidates could later have an objective measure of their performances at interview.
Defence Forces personnel now have a right to view information contained on their personal files, which was not formerly the case, she said.
The Defence Forces said in a statement last night that the number of notifications of complaint had dropped from 261 in 2008 to 84 last year and that this was indicative of the workplace philosophy now firmly embedded in the organisation.
- Tom Brady Security Editor
Irish Independent
