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Dear Mr McWeeney

I Sean Garvey Sean Garvey sean.garvey@ombudsman.gov.ie Peter Tyndall Peter Tyndall Peter Tyndall Office of the Ombudsman Irish Office of the Ombudsman The Irish Ombudsman Office of the Information Commissioner Standards in Public Office Commission http://ombudsman.gov.ie/ https://twitter.com/officeombudsman https://www.linkedin.com/company/office-of-the-ombudsman-ireland Investigates complaints about public officials. 18 Lower Leeson Street Dublin D02 HE97 Ireland (1890)253238 (01)6395689 (01)6395674 (01)6395676 Dáil Éireann The Government of Ireland Kildare Street Dublin Ireland refer to previous correspondence in connection with your appeal of this Office's decision not to uphold Peter Tyndall Peter Tyndall Office of the Ombudsman Irish Office of the Ombudsman The Irish Ombudsman Office of the Information Commissioner Standards in Public Office Commission http://ombudsman.gov.ie/ https://twitter.com/officeombudsman https://www.linkedin.com/company/office-of-the-ombudsman-ireland Investigates complaints about public officials. 18 Lower Leeson Street Dublin D02 HE97 Ireland (1890)253238 (01)6395689 (01)6395674 (01)6395676 Dáil Éireann The Government of Ireland Kildare Street Dublin Ireland your complaint against Longford County Council. Francis Sheridan Frank Sheridan Francis Sheridan https://www.facebook.com/ThePhoenixMagazine/posts/793100590707225 https://twitter.com/thephoenixmag/status/425221171408142337 Longford County Council Longford County Council http://longfordcoco.ie/ Longford County Council Great Water Street Longford Co. Longford N39 NH56 Ireland 043 3343000 Longford Sports and Leisure http://longfordsportsandleisure.ie/ County Longford Sports and Leisure Centre Public Sports Facility The Mall Longford Co. Longford Ireland 043 3346536 043 3346431 longfordsportscentre@eircom.net http://longfordsportsandleisure.ie/other/images/building_sm.jpg 1 Longford County Library Longford County Library Longford County Library Town Centre Longford Co. Longford Ireland 043 3340727 library@longfordcoco.ie http://www.longfordlibrary.ie/ https://www.facebook.com/longfordlibraries/ https://twitter.com/Longfordlibrary https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVa8Z_ohzcuhS530lvJRtng https://vimeo.com/longfordlibrary I refer in particular to your communication of 5 March in which you appealed the decision on your complaint as set out in the letter to you of 25 Febrary 2014 on the matter from Mr Danny Smith Danny Smith Danny Smith danny.smith@ombudsman.gov.ie Peter Tyndall Peter Tyndall Peter Tyndall Office of the Ombudsman Irish Office of the Ombudsman The Irish Ombudsman Office of the Information Commissioner Standards in Public Office Commission http://ombudsman.gov.ie/ https://twitter.com/officeombudsman https://www.linkedin.com/company/office-of-the-ombudsman-ireland Investigates complaints about public officials. 18 Lower Leeson Street Dublin D02 HE97 Ireland (1890)253238 (01)6395689 (01)6395674 (01)6395676 Dáil Éireann The Government of Ireland Kildare Street Dublin Ireland of this Office.

I also refer to the letter to you of 10 March 2014 from Mr Aidan Moore Aidan Moore Aidan Moore aidan.moore@ombudsman.gov.ie info@lobbying.ie (01) 6395711 (087) 9175186 (01) 639 5684 https://twitter.com/aidanmmoore81 https://twicopy.org/aidanmmoore81/ https://www.lobbying.ie/ https://twitter.com/LobbyingIE Peter Tyndall Peter Tyndall Peter Tyndall Office of the Ombudsman Irish Office of the Ombudsman The Irish Ombudsman Office of the Information Commissioner Standards in Public Office Commission http://ombudsman.gov.ie/ https://twitter.com/officeombudsman https://www.linkedin.com/company/office-of-the-ombudsman-ireland Investigates complaints about public officials. 18 Lower Leeson Street Dublin D02 HE97 Ireland (1890)253238 (01)6395689 (01)6395674 (01)6395676 Dáil Éireann The Government of Ireland Kildare Street Dublin Ireland of this Office which informed you that complainants may avail of one appeal and one appeal only in relation to this Office's handling of a particular complaint.

Your appeal has been sent to me for consideration and decision. Having considered your appeal, the original decision and the case file on your complaint, I regret to inform you that I have decided not to uphold your appeal. I set out my reasoning for this conclusion below.

In his letter of 25 February, Mr Smith set out the background to your complaint, the sequence of relevant events as set out on file, and, based on his consideration of those, his conclusion that your complaint should not be upheld. As you have already been provided with this information, as my role is to make a decision on your appeal I do not intend to repeat that information here, rather I would like to explain my reason for agreeing with Mr Smith's decision on your case.

In your communication of 5 March you make a number of points about your complaint and how it was handled. I deal with what in my view are the more relevant points below.

You refer to members of An Garda Siochana. The actions of Gardai are outside the remit of this Office, so I have not considered that aspect of your correspondence in my examination of your appeal.

You refer to the position taken by the Council that the actions you complained of were not within its jurisdiction. As this Office examined your complaint on the grounds that those actions are within our remit, in my view that aspect of your communication has been dealt with so I have not considered it necessary to pursue that point any further.

You state that the swimming pool is monitored by CCTV which you state would exonerate you of the complaints made against you. I arranged for this matter to be taken up with the Council, which has informed us that CCTV recordings of the swimming pool are made but that they are not retained beyond 30 days. I see no reason to dispute that position. As this would mean any images of the events in question that may have been recorded would not have been retained by the Council by the time you made your complaint to us, I do not consider that I have any evidence from that source before me that would give me a reasonable basis for departing from Mr Smith's conclusion that the complaints against you were fairly dealt with by the Council.

You refer to your requests to this Office under Freedom of Information and Data Protection Office of the Data Protection Commissioner Irish Data Protection Commissioner http://dataprotection.ie/ Investigates complaints about misuse of data Station Road Portarlington Co. Laois Ireland Acts for a copy of the report on your complaint sent to this Office by the Council. As this Office has already explained the position on those matters to you, I have nothing to add to what you have already been told. I will say that Mr Smith has provided you with an outline of the Council's position as set out in it's report, so I am satisfied that you have been made aware of anything in it that is relevant to our consideration of your complaint.

You have also sent in other correspondence on your complaint. I have considered this correspondence, and, having done so, do not see in it where you provide any further information that would lead me to revise my conclusion that Mr Smith's examination of your complaint, and is conclusion on it, were correctly undertaken. For example, while you state (in your letter of 2 July to the Ombudsman) that a number of people have come forward to you with crucial information, you say they did so in confidence and therefore you have not provided this information to this Office. Whatever the circumstances surrounding such information, the fact is that, in it's absence, I have no evidence before me to cause me to revise my view that the conclusion on your complaint was properly taken.

It is clear to me that you are deeply dissatisfied with the way this issue has been handled, both by the Council and this Office. However, while you have commented on how you feel you have been treated, you have not in my opinion provided me with any further information that would provide me with an argued basis for finding that your Mr Smith's conclusion on your complaint should be overturned. Accordingly I do not uphold your appeal of that conclusion.

I fully appreciate how disappointed you will be at this decision but, having given your appeal careful consideration, I am satisfied that the decision taken on your case is correct in the circumstances.