Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions

Redressing the Imbalance Report: Free Legal Advice Centres

4:15 pm

Mr. Paul Joyce:

It is clear that financial services is a tricky area as the provider has a lot more knowledge and expertise than the consumer. The attitude the Financial Services Ombudsman tends to adopt is that the office has to be an honest broker and cannot favour either side, even though often the complainant sees the ombudsman as a consumer champion, which the office clearly is not. There is nowhere specific that one can go.