Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am interested in Ms Murphy's views on the officials' comment about regulating the service provider rather than the owner.

Mr. Hogan stated:

Our intention is to allow access to the Financial Services Ombudsman for borrowers who are unhappy about any actions which affect them. Our intention, subject to the advice of the Office of the Attorney General, is that, if the regulated credit servicer claims it is not responsible and passes responsibility to the owner, the legislation will allow the Financial Services Ombudsman to make the owner a party to the complaint, even if the owner is not regulated.

I raise this issue because members have been waiting for this legislation for a year and it is quite frustrating. There has been public consultation and the legislation as printed does not appear to be what will be published. It appears to me as though this could be a quite convoluted and long drawn-out process. Were I the person with a complaint for the Financial Services Ombudsman, I would be obliged to go through a system in which it is not really clear as to who was responsible for my complaint. In addition, it is also clear that at this point it is subject to the advice of the Attorney General and, therefore, the Department has not got this across the line yet.