Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish the ladies a good afternoon and thank them very much. They will notice we always keep the best for last. I will be as brief as I can. I will touch on cryptocurrencies and the risk factors and reasons people take the gamble on it for a quick fix. In Ms McGovern's opinion, should there be a national warning campaign on the dos and don'ts of this but to have it, as we say in the House, in plain English with the risk factors laid out? I am well aware of many young people and the current situation with Covid-19 and so forth. Jobs and money were not there and bills were building up. People took a gamble on it and thought it was a fine fix. That is the first issue.

One thing in which I was very interested during Covid-19 was business interruption insurance. One part in the ombudsman's report said that almost 300 were unresolved complaints. Could Ms McGovern even explain how technical that is? What is holding those cases up? We are so diverse at the moment as a society. This is about accessing the ombudsman's service. We spoke about accessing businesses and complaint systems and so forth. Does the ombudsman have a disability liaison officer within her office for people who are not well-versed in technology or whatever else?

I am very interested in the cases because again, we have our own examples. One such case involves a battle with a bank with which a person had an insurance policy the bank claimed was not there. Unfortunately, the business closed. The person who was running that business was not aware of her policy until later but the bank is now refusing to pay out on that policy. Does the ombudsman have the power to go in and investigate if that person approaches the office with all that information? I know there is a lot there but as I said, that is as far as I will go.