http___www.rte.ie_news_nuacht_2013_0703_460407-emily-oreilly-ina-hombudman-eorpach__1.xml
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Emily O'Reilly elected European OmbudsmanWednesday 03 July 2013 23.08 Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly has been elected as European Ombudsman at a vote in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The European Ombudsman investigates public complaints concerning European Institutions and various EU agencies. She is the first woman to hold the position. President Michael D Higgins congratulated Ms O'Reilly on her election. He thanked her for her committed service as Irish Ombudsman and said her election reflects the "very high regard in which she is held across Europe." Taoiseach Enda Kenny also congratulated Ms O'Reilly. He said the full support of Irish MEPs for her was "testament to her many years of work as Irish Ombudsman". Ms O'Reilly, who has been Ireland's Ombudsman since 2003, came joint-first in a preliminary vote yesterday. The other leading contender was Dutch MEP Ria Oomen-Ruijten, a member of the Parliament's largest political grouping, the centre-right European People's Party. Ms O'Reilly has said she hopes to raise the profile of the office of European Ombudsman after her election to the position by the European Parliament. Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Ms O'Reilly said she expects the office to deal with more "meaty issues" during her tenure, as EU institutions are playing a more prominent part in the lives of ordinary citizens. She said: "The office is slightly smaller than my own. It has about 60 staff in it. It is very busy in terms of the number of people who come to it. "Obviously, a lot of the complaints that it gets don't exactly fit into its remit. A lot of people in Europe think it's an appeal body for the member states, which it isn't. "But increasingly it's dealing with much more complex complaints. It's really moving out from the margins, where it was dealing with individual complaints, to dealing with much more meaty issues. "Two of the words I was using were visibility and impact, because if nobody knows it's there, it could be doing fantastic work on a small number of complaints." Ms O'Reilly welcomed the cross-party support she received from MEPs in Strasbourg and said Ireland's response to the recession had helped her candidacy. She said: "I suppose it came at a good time. I think if I had been competing for this two years ago when Ireland's name and reputation wasn't so great, it might have been more difficult. "From what I have picked up from conversations with MEPs from all across the various countries, there was a generally reasonably high regard for the way Ireland is dealing with the recession and for the way it handled the (EU) presidency."
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Ombudsman na hÉireann, Emily O'Reilly tofa ina hOmbudsman Eorpach i bPairlimnt na hEorpa ar maidinDé hAoine 05 Iúil 2013 10.48 Thogh Pairlimint na hEorpa i Strasbourg an tOmbudsman agus Coimisinéir Fáisnéise Emily O'Reilly, ina hOmbudsman Eorpach ar maidin. Seo í an chéad uair a ceapadh bean sa bpost seo a fhiosraíonn gearáin ó shaoránaigh Eorpacha faoi institiúidí an Aontais Eorpaigh. Bhí seisear san iomaíocht don toghchán, triúr díobh sin ina bhFeisirí Eorpacha, ach tar éis an tríú babhta vótála, bhí an lá ag iarrthóir na hÉireann. Leanfaidh sí ina post in Éirinn go dtí 1 Deireadh Fómhair na bliana seo, tráth a thosóidh sí i mbun a cúraimí nua Eorpacha go foirmeálta. Thréaslaigh an tUachtarán Higgins a ceapúchán le hEmily O'Reilly mar a rinne an Taoiseach, an Tánaiste agus go leor grúpaí ionadaíochta in Éirinn a deir gur ghníomhaigh sí go maith ar a son ina ról mar Ombudsman. Thug Feisirí as Éirinn ar an dá thaobh den teorainn tacaíocht don Ombudsman. Deir Emily O'Reilly gur cúnamh di an dearcadh i measc roinnt mhaith feisirí go bhfuil Éire ag dul i ngleis leis an ngcéarchéím eacnamaíochta, agus gur éirigh go maith le hUachtarántacht na hÉireann ar an Aontas Eorpach. Tá oifig an Ombusman san Eoraip níos lú ná ceann na hÉireann, ach deir sí go bhfuil an obair a dhéanann an oifig ag éirí níos casta agus níos téagartha, de réir mar atá an oifig féin ag éírí feiceálaí. Tá súíl aici cur le tábhachta agus feiceálacht na hoifige, a deir sí.