Professor Philip Lane:

The Chairman has given an example, the core of which is essentially the same as the way we recognise that it is much better to use the ombudsman framework for households and for micro-enterprises valued below €3 million as an alternative to going to court. Given the asymmetry between a SME worth €10 million or €20 million compared with a gigantic global firm, the Chairman is saying that an ombudsman framework would be better than a court process. Because that is to do with handling individual cases, however, I believe it is a matter for the Oireachtas to make that decision. It is not a direct regulatory decision or issue of the ombudsman or the courts. In other words it is in the judicial realm rather than our realm, which is about the systemic handling of debt, loans and other financial services. We have protections for households and for SMEs as currently defined. The Chairman has asked whether our consumer protection framework should be expanded to include SMEs of a higher value.