A man was removed from Dublin City Council’s social housing list five years ago without his knowledge because he did not complete an assessment survey, according to a new report.Ombudsman Ger Deering on Tuesday published his office’s 2025 annual report which outlines some of the complaints it received last year.The watchdog investigates complaints about public bodies including local authorities, Government departments and the HSE. A total of 5,297 complaints were made about public services last year – an increase of 11 per cent on 2024 and the highest number for more than 30 years. According to the annual report, the Ombudsman received a number of complaints where local authorities removed applicants from the social housing waiting list as they had not responded to the Social Housing Assessment (SHA) survey. In one example, Gary contacted the Ombudsman early last year after discovering Dublin City Council had removed him from the social housing waiting list in 2020 without his knowledge.He was unhappy about being removed without receiving any notification and wanted to be reinstated on the list. According to Dublin City Council, Gary was removed from the housing list in 2020 as he had failed to return his SHA survey form.The council said a number of reminder letters were sent to the man. However, the Ombudsman noted the local authority also had his mobile number and email address on file.“There was no evidence presented to the Ombudsman that the council had tried to contact Gary by email or mobile phone,” the report said.The Ombudsman asked the council to review its decision as “it was not evident that it had tried to contact the man using all means of communication available to it before removing him from the social housing waiting list”.The council agreed to reinstate Gary on its social housing list and backdated his case to the date of his original application. According to the Ombudsman, there was a continued increase in complaints about local authorities – up 20 per cent on the 2024 figure, to 1,793 last year. A further 248 complaints were made to the Ombudsman about Dublin City Council, while 200 involved Cork City Council.Government departments and offices were at the centre of 1,502 complaints, with the Department of Social Protection the subject of 686.There were 861 complaints about public bodies in the health sector, with 720 involving the HSE and 110 regarding Tusla.Due of the increase in complaints about local authorities in recent years, the Ombudsman engaged with the sector to develop a standardised policy and procedure for dealing with complaints from the public.Deering said the local authority complaints policy was being rolled out by local authorities over the course of this year. “I am hopeful that its implementation will improve service delivery and complaint handling by local authorities, and so benefit everyone using their services,” he added.