Mr. Ger Deering:

I am sorry; I could not read my own writing. When a complaint comes into our office, the first thing we do is check to see if the complaint is actually complete. Before making a complaint to our office, a person must make a complaint to the provider. People sometimes arrive to us not having done so. We have an explanatory leaflet with three steps that explains to people how to make a complaint to the provider. They need to get a final response from the provider and we can then deal with the complaint at that stage. We first engage with complainants to make sure they have been to their provider and have a final response, and ensure we have whatever we need to progress the complaint.

The complaint then goes to our dispute resolution process, which is a relatively new service we introduced. In fact, it actually resolved almost 3,000 complaints last year and is a highly informal mediation process. The first thing that will happen is a dispute resolution officer will pick up the phone to contact the complainant and try to establish exactly what the complaint is and what the complainant wants to resolve that complaint. Then, the same complaint dispute resolution officer engages with the provider. A kind of shuttle mediation takes place, although sometimes it is in person. Much of this is done on the telephone, however. We have sometimes described this as old-fashioned innovation because there has been a huge move online. We ourselves made a big move online with many of our procedures in 2020. We also acknowledge, however, that we have a cohort of customers who want to talk to somebody. Sometimes, their complaint has evolved because of a lack of communication and because they could not get to talk to the right person. We are, therefore, very conscious of that. We want people to be able to communicate with us in whatever format works for them. For many people, it is actually the telephone. We are obviously using technology as well.

There are two ways in which a complaint can be resolved in dispute resolution. Many complaints are resolved when the provider actually makes an offer and an agreement is drawn up between the parties. It is entirely a matter for the complainant and the provider as to whether they want to come to an arrangement and make an agreement. If they do, then that agreement is the basis of the settlement and the complaint closes.

In some instances, it is closed on the basis of clarification, whereby the complainant receives and accepts an explanation for whatever the conduct was and understands better what happened. The complaint closes on that basis, with the ability to reopen it if something new comes to light.

If the complaint is not resolved at that level or at this stage of the dispute resolution service, it then moves on to our formal investigation service. The first thing that happens is that an investigation officer will examine the file and prepare what is called a summary of complaint, which is issued to the provider. It summarises the complaint and sets out a series of questions for the provider to answer and a schedule of evidence the provider must produce. If they are not already on the file, this includes, for example, things like terms and conditions, all the communications, correspondence, records and recordings of telephone calls and so forth. Very interestingly, at that stage, sometimes the providers actually come back with an offer, which the complainants are happy to accept. Indeed, I believe more than €1 million actually changed hands last year at that particular stage of the process.

If that does not happen then we progress with the investigation, which involves an exchange of documentation. Coming back to the Chairman's earlier point about the speed of how we deal with complaints, we can see as we get into the process that a complaint handled in mediation will be resolved much quicker, usually within three months. When it moves on to the investigation stage, it is a much more formal process. The provider has the right to respond to the summary of complaint and the complainant then is entitled to make a submission in response to that. We are, therefore, very much in the hands of the parties as regards how long it will take in a formal investigation because the submissions will go over and back. In terms of fair procedures, we must allow the parties to make the submissions and provide whatever evidence they want.

When that process ends, we issue what is called a preliminary decision, which is, in a sense, in most cases, on the same lines and very similar to the legally binding decision. We introduced this recently. Before we did so, the first that complainants or the provider knew what the ombudsman was thinking was when they got a legally binding decision. As the decisions are legally binding and only appealable to the High Court, we felt it would be good if people had an opportunity to comment on the preliminary decision before that step. The preliminary decision, therefore, sets out the proposed decision but allows the parties to make certain further submissions on points of law or points of fact.

If there are no further submissions, the legally binding decision issues on the same terms as the preliminary decision. If there are submissions, they are considered and a legally binding decision issues on the basis of all the evidence. There are different stages along the process until it reaches its conclusion.