The number of complaints received by the Office of the Ombudsman increased by 8 per cent last year to the highest level in over a decade.
The increase, from 2,578 to 2,787 valid complaints, was a result of the growth in the number of people claiming social welfare benefits in 2008 and a better understanding of the public service complaints mechanism, Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly said.
"This does not necessarily point to a decline in public service standards," she said. "But may be a reflection of the difficult times we live in."
The Office of the Ombudsman investigates complaints about the administrative actions of Government Departments, the Health Service Executive, local authorities and An Post.
It completed a total of 2,701 cases last year, a 7 per cent increase on the 2,520 recorded in 2007.
According to the report, problems with the Civil Service accounted for 39.1 per cent of the complaints last year, a 2.3 per cent drop on 2007, while Local Authorities were involved in 30.1 per cent of complaints, a 3.3 per cent reduction on the previous year.
Complaints against the Health Service Executive (HSE) increased by 5.3 per cent to 27.5 per cent last year, and complaints against An Post rose marginally to 3.3 per cent.
An additional 1,154 complaints made to the Office of the Ombudsman last year fell outside its jurisdiction.
Ms O'Reilly said the "remarkably low level" of complaints received under the Disability Act 2005 last year, six in total, was a cause for concern and that a lot of public servants have a "serious lack of knowledge" about their responsibilities under the Act.
She urged the public bodies to better ensure people with disabilities were better assisted and guided in accessing public buildings, services and information.
"If people with disabilities don't have information easily available to let them know how to make a complaint against a public body, then it is no surprise that complaints from them to me remain remarkably low," she said.
Ms O'Reilly said that each decision made by her office not only helped the individual concerned, but helped other public bodies to learn from the mistake and improve their own services.
Labour Party Spokesperson on Equality Katheleen Lynch said the reporthighlighted that public bodies needed to do better on disability compliance.
"Under the Disability Act, public bodies are obliged to draw up and to publish procedures in relation to making and investigating complaints. If they have drawn up those procedures they certainly have not brought them to public attention in any meaningful way, and as a result, people with disabilities are being treated with contempt," she said.
"It seems to be the case that there is virtually no support provided by a large number of public bodies, to people who may have grounds to make a complaint under the 2005 Act. The lack of knowledge among staff members in public bodies, as to just what their responsibilities are under the Disability Act, as revealed by the Ombudsman, is also very worrying.
"I hope the fact that the Ombudsman has highlighted these issues will cause these public bodies to take stock of their abysmal performance and take immediate steps to improve matters."
