Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that we are talking about principles here and that these are the heads of a Bill. However, head 43 refers to the conduct of investigations. However, subsection (4) provides, "The Ombudsman may, in the course of investigating a complaint, periodically report to the complainant on the progress of the investigation and, in so doing, may make such comments to the complainant on the investigation and its consequences and implications as that Ombudsman thinks fit." What is meant by "thinks fit" or deems appropriate perhaps needs to be examined. Will the Minister give us a sense of the guiding principles?

We can compare this with head 44. If the ombudsman embarks on a process of mediation and the complainant or the ombudsman feels that the organisation, intermediary or institution against whom the complaint is being made is merely going through a box-ticking exercise to be seen to be going along with a process, what kind of recourse does the ombudsman have? What level of discretion does the ombudsman have in determining that the financial institution is not playing ball and, therefore, that a sanction will be issued? If the document is prepared for the purposes of the mediation, some of it may not be deemed to be admissible if it has gone through a mediation process. The question then is how much power in real terms does the ombudsman have to ensure the financial institution goes along with the process or, at least, is an honest party to the process.