Ms Noeline Blackwell:

Deputy Boyd Barrett is absolutely correct about the whole business of inequality and the feeling that one is up against a big, powerful organisation. That is a real problem of the legal aid system in general. The legal aid system could give assistance in the Circuit Court but because of delays and the rest of it, may not and is prohibited by law from giving assistance in a complaint to the ombudsman. If I go to the Legal Aid Board - the State-funded legal aid service - and say I want help in bringing my case to the ombudsman it cannot give me representation.

The ombudsman system is probably much better than having to go into court on day one. It is free and it is supposed to be utterly independent. The blocks are in how one gets there, exactly as Mr. Joyce outlined. The independence of the ombudsman disappears when he goes into the High Court and goes on-side against the consumer who is bringing the appeal, which has been our invariable experience. The appeal is not against the company that made the decision in the first place; it is taken against the company and the ombudsman. The ombudsman fights the case so one risks losing and paying two sets of costs. That is an entirely impractical system for most people who cannot be assured of success at the far end of it.

We also have exactly the same problem in relation to people trying to negotiate with their banks. At a different stage we spoke at a different committee about the imbalance of power where people are not supported by any State assistance or bank assistance unless they are lucky enough to be with MABS or an advocacy agency, which is very hit and miss.