Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

There seems to be a consensus among all of the delegates that the biggest difficulty for borrowers is that there is no effective route to appeal. Will the representatives of FLAC comment on the suggestion made by the Minister for Finance that because we are dealing with mortgages which are commercial contracts, the scope we have, as legislators, is curtailed, in terms of what we can do to address the issue? What does FLAC believe would be legally possible in putting in place an effective route to appeal?

I also wish to ask a question about the Financial Services Ombudsman who appeared before the committee recently. He made it clear that he did not consider he had any role to play in levelling the playing field. He also argued that he had no role to play in investigating the details of the commercial terms of any mortgage, other than ensuring the matter had been dealt with in an impartial fashion and so forth. I ask the delegates to comment on the role of the ombudsman in this area.