Sligo Disabled Persons' Organisation brings complaint about Sligo County Council to the Ombudsman

Press Release from Sligo DPO

[Image: logo for Sligo DPO]

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Sligo Disabled Persons’ Organisation brings complaint about Sligo County Council to the Ombudsman

“Last week, the Sligo Disabled Persons’ Organisation (DPO) registered a complaint against the Sligo County Council with the Ombudsman.

The complaint concerns the consultation process for the Draft Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) Scheme.

DPO Secretary, Aisling Smith, who is also a member of the Public Participation Network (PPN) Secretariat explained, “SPCs are the main committees where the Council gets community feedback about plans and policies. Sligo DPO is part of the PPN Social Inclusion College so these social inclusion seats are how we have our voices heard on the plans and policies that affect us”

DPO Chairperson Ruth Flood said, “We made a reasonable request for a PPN social inclusion voice on every SPC. When this request was refused, we wrote to the council more than once to ask, ‘why?’ but they refused to answer that question. This took our members down a long process of back and forth with the Council, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, a formal complaint to the Council, and ultimately an ombudsman complaint. This is a testament to the tenacity of Sligo DPO members in realising our rights but it’s absurd the lengths our members must go to get a simple answer to a simple question. Community voices should be listened to, and where not, we are entitled to understand the reason for it.

“Specifically, the FOI showed that there were 19 submissions to this consultation. The guidance for the Consultation said that the Corporate Policy Group (CPG) and the Council Executive was supposed to review the submissions and make any amendments. Instead, the Council Executive reviewed the submissions and made amendments alone. The first time the CPG and the councillors saw any of the submissions was one working day before they were asked to approve the new draft scheme. This is an exercise of executive dictatorship where decisions are rubber-stamped rather than the mindful consideration that the process guidance required.”

Sligo DPO public relations officer, Pippa Black referenced the United Nations Convention on the rights of disabled people saying, “We have the right to be consulted, through our representative organisations on matters that affect us. We took this to the Ombudsman because we have a right to participate in these decisions and to see our recommendations reflected in the outcome of decision-making processes. When that does not happen, we have a right to reasons. This was completely denied throughout this process

“These SPCs exist to support community involvement in Council policy-making. And yet, the way this consultation itself was carried out, the Council executive has demonstrated its disregard for meaningful public consultation as well as showing a level of disrespect for the volunteer time put into making these submissions in good faith. We hope the Ombudsman will hold the Council to a higher standard for consultation and remind them of their duty to uphold our UN Convention rights.”

Keep up to date with Sligo DPO’s work here.
You can contact Sligo DPO by emailing: sligodpo@gmail.com

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