Mr. Liam Sloyan:

There are numerous differences between ourselves and the Financial Ombudsman Service in the UK. The existence of an independent assessor is one. The structures established by the Oireachtas involve the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman's Council that is responsible for overseeing the efficiency of the office, which the independent assessor would look at in the UK. The other thing we have done in our office, working within the legislation as it stands, is to put in place a structure under which complaints about customer service, efficiency or such matters that would be addressed by the assessor in the UK are addressed by a separate function in our office. That function does not have any responsibility for looking into complaints about financial service providers, but has responsibility for looking at the complaints received about the performance of our office and for addressing them. There are differences. The structures we have in place are working well at the moment. The assessor in the UK brings benefits. Ultimately it is a matter for the Oireachtas.