Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses to the committee this afternoon. We are carrying out pre-legislative scrutiny on legislation to amend the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman Act. It is important to emphasise that it is our legislation, as the witnesses recognise. It is also important that we have their input into it as they are the people who will be giving it effect and operating it.

As a preliminary introduction, it is worth pointing out that in the past 25 years the Oireachtas has made a conscious decision to remove certain functions from the courts and delegate them to new statutory bodies it has established. It has been done in respect of landlord and tenant disputes with the Residential Tenancies Board. It is done in respect of employer and employee disputes with the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC and it is done in respect of complaints against financial services bodies and pensions providers with the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman.

Does Mr. Sloyan recognise it is the administration of justice under Article 37 because it is of limited function and powers? Mr. Sloyan recognises and accepts that the FSPO is administering justice. Is that fair to say?