Mr. Paul Joyce:

I have one further short point. The Central Bank’s consumer protection code obliges all regulated financial service providers to have a complaints mechanism within the organisation which one can access. The wording of the code is curious. It suggests that a regulated financial services provider must attempt to resolve a complaint within 40 days. Practically speaking, a lot of the complaints are not resolved within that eight week period and take substantially longer. From the evidence we saw, many people give up hope before they even get to the ombudsman because they feel stonewalled by the provider itself. If a case is strung out then people will eventually give up rather than follow through. Something must be done to monitor the code to ensure the timelines are shorter and they are strictly adhered to, as at the moment that is not properly monitored.