Ireland | New Ombudsman for Ireland appointed

Ger Deering was appointed Ombudsman and Information Commissioner for Ireland by President Michael D. Higgins in January 2022. Ger has established and led a number of public bodies and has considerable experience in consumer and employment rights.

He was appointed Financial Services Ombudsman in 2015 and Pensions Ombudsman in 2016. He became the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman when both offices were merged in 2018. In this role he led a significant change programme that resulted in many more complaints against financial service providers being resolved through mediation.

Ger was the first Commissioner for Taxi Regulation, where he introduced a range of reforms to the industry. He was the founding Director of the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) where he promoted compliance with employment rights and secured redress for employees who were denied their minimum statutory entitlements.

Ger played a key role in leading the Workplace Relations Reform Programme which created a two-tier user-oriented national workplace relations service that replaced the former five bodies.

He has extensive experience working across local government, community development, the civil service and the private sector.

Source: Office of the Ombudsman, Ireland