There were 1,812 complaints to the Ombudsman for Children's Office last year, with education the most complained about issue, where bullying and special education resources were prominent concerns.
The Ombudsman's 2022 report also stated that its findings showed that, on many issues, Ireland is starting to fall behind on various aspects children’s rights, including in the areas of poverty and mental health.
Accounting for almost a third of complaints (30%) in 2022, education was, for the second year running, the most prominent issue raised with the Ombudsman.
The main reasons for the complaints were bullying, expulsion or suspension, special education resources and access to school transport.
Complaints across the areas of education, health, justice, finance, as well as complaints relating to Tusla and local authorities were also made.
In more than eight out of ten cases, it was a parent making the complaint.
The annual report, entitled 'Falling Behind' features stories from children that the department worked with last year, including one girl who said that after making an allegation of bullying with a sexual dimension, the school made her feel responsible and that she was bullied by other students for reporting the abuse.
The Ombudsman took action and the school eventually apologised to the girl, with the board of management updating its policies.
The report also features the experience of a 10-year-old girl, who developed an eating disorder during the pandemic and had to be tube-fed.
According to the report, her family came to the Ombudsman for Children's Office as they were not happy with how her case was handled.
It said the Health Service Executive (HSE) apologised to the girl's family and the Ombudsman recommended changes to improve the system.
The report also states that Ireland is falling behind with regard to children’s rights, particularly around poverty, mental health services, the lack of inclusive school places for all children and the State’s failure to integrate children’s rights into legislation.
In 2021 the Office received 2,126 complaints, 908 of which related to Covid-19.
It said these were not standard complaints considering the circumstances of the pandemic, and therefore 2022 "is our busiest year for complaints since the establishment of the office".
Commenting on the findings, Children's Ombudsman Dr Niall Muldoon said the last two years have been the busiest since his office was created and that we are "not where we should be" on children's rights.
"This is backed up by the Concluding Observations from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child," he said.
"The Taoiseach has said that he wants Ireland to be the best country in Europe to be a child. If this is to happen, we need to finally incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into legislation – 30 years after its ratification," he added.
"We also need to totally reform our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) which we know are hugely dysfunctional and failing our most vulnerable children. Changes also need to be made to provide inclusive education for all children in Ireland," Dr Muldoon added.
In a statement, the HSE said it "acknowledges that there are deficits in current service provision related to access, capacity and consistency in quality of services provided.
"In response to these deficits, the HSE has prioritised targeted improvements and investment over recent years, involving capacity building in youth mental health and CAMHS, expansion of specialist clinical programmes, funding of suicide prevention initiatives and investment in mental health in primary care, forensic services and digital mental health.
"Within the past six years, €22.6m of development funding has been directed to enhance youth mental health services across these prioritised areas of service enhancements, bringing the total CAMHS budget to an estimated €137m or approximately 12% of the overall mental health budget."
