The Ombudsman for the Defence Forces, Paulyn Marrinan Quinn SC, revealed another 31 allegations of bullying were made to her office throughout 2009.

She said while 27 of those were made by one member and were still outstanding following a disciplinary hearing, none of the remaining four claims were upheld.

No complaints of sexual harassment were made, she added.

Ms Marrinan Quinn - who upheld 74% of the 105 cases handled in 2009 - said that after four years her office has won the trust of troops.

Some 37 complaints dealt with selection procedures for promotion while 14 referred to selection for career courses. A further 11 involved career-related administration procedures; eight examined maladministration; three involved selection procedures for overseas service and one was on conditions of employment/pension issues.

Ms Marrinan Quinn said new changes to personnel and recruitment policies should go some way towards reducing the number of complaints over selections.

"As a result of my recommendations, there is now initial support for selection boards to use a marking matrix so that all candidates can have an objective measure of their performance at an interview," she said. "Enhanced systems for offering candidates feedback after interview are being explored and, on a more specific note, Defence Force members now have a right to view information contained on their personal files, which was not formerly the case."

Elsewhere, the Ombudsman said former Defence Minister Willie O'Dea was sent reports in respect of 31 cases - and criticised why it took an average of 129 days to respond, an increase of 40 days on 2008.

"I get the impression when it goes to the minister, the minister's people are entering into another briefing again with the Defence Forces and I have made my views felt very strongly about that," she said. The Ombudsman said her office is the last point of call for soldiers after they had gone through a thorough internal investigation. "If I then make a recommendation to the minister there's really no grounds for it to be re-examined or reinvestigated," she added.