Ms Niamh Byrne:

One other fact, before my case was adjudicated on in 2012, Ulster Bank asked to stop the case to make an offer. The Ulster Bank offer was €12,500, which was ridiculous and I was never going to accept it. I gave them a list of costs. I admit it was a laundry list of costs, right down to tax relief at source, TRS, the whole lot and the bank did not even negotiate. The bank deemed me a very difficult customer and immediately went bank to the Financial Services Ombudsman's process to restart the process. I have since learned anecdotally that this is happening in numerous case. This is the modus operandi in the office of the Financial Services Ombudsman, that the people there push and push to make it as difficult as possible for the customer and they hope just before the end that they will catch them with a low ball offer and resolve the case that way.