Children living in mouldy homes, a pupil worried about losing his special needs assistant (SNA) and the case of a child being touched inappropriately at school feature in the latest Ombudsman for Children’s annual report.The Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) received 1,778 complaints in 2025, mostly from parents on behalf of their youngsters (81 per cent).The number of complaints from children themselves rose from 3 per cent to 4 per cent in 2025.Education was the most complained-about issue, accounting for 31 per cent of all grievances. Most related to special educational support, while bullying and complaints management in schools also came up. A fifth of all complaints related to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, with children in special emergency arrangements, special care and education support services all featuring. The third highest number of complaints related to health, at 14 per cent. Grievances included access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, concerns over children staying in hospital beyond medical need and complaints about the lack of access to assessment-of-need reports. One complaint featured in the report was from Zach, a 10-year-old boy with quadriplegia, who is a wheelchair user and relies on a special needs assistant at school for personal needs, eating, communicating and using his assistive technology.Zach, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, has no functional use of his arms or legs. He has learned to use an assistive technology system with a mouth-controlled joystick and his SNA was fully trained in using this.However, the school decided to reassign this SNA to another child, who did not use assistive technology, and assign Zach a new SNA who did not have that training. Zach wrote what the Ombudsman for Children’s Office called “a very compelling letter” to them outlining why he felt this was unfair and not in his best interests.The report said he “spent the whole summer stressed and worried that he wouldn’t be able to return to school in September. He was concerned that he would be unable to participate equally alongside his peers, as his SNA would be unfamiliar with the technology that supports his participation and inclusion in school”.The OCO wrote to the school and Zach returned to the care of his original SNA while the new SNA was trained appropriately.Another complaint about education related to the handling of a child protection case by a primary school.A member of staff at the school witnessed a teacher touching an 11-year-old-boy inappropriately in a school corridor. The staff member raised it with the principal, who took advice from the board of management and met the teacher concerned. However, neither the boy’s mother nor Tusla was told. Two further concerns were raised by school staff about the same teacher’s behaviour and a notification of possible abuse was made to Tusla. Gardaí and Tusla investigated. A new chair of the school’s board of management was appointed.Housing was also an issue that came up in complaints, with one mother writing to the Ombudsman on behalf of her two children, Rebecca (6) and Paul (5), whose names have also been changed. She said her children had been living in a home being rented to them by an approved housing body (AHB), but the property had mould in several rooms and there was no running hot water. The children had seen their GP for respiratory issues several times in 2024.The OCO report said members of its office visited the home and described the conditions as “deplorable”. Since then the AHB has engaged with the family, installed a new water pump and agreed to a schedule of works to fix the issues.