Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I will come back to the tracker examination. Before I do so, the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman faces a challenge regarding recruitment and retention of staff. Mr. Deering provided the committee with figures. The service had 53 staff in January 2018 and has recruited 43 staff since. Doing the mathematics, that should mean a staff of 96 but there are only 60 staff in the office. A large number of staff, presumably with experience, have left the office. As Mr. Deering outlined, dealing with complaints can be a lengthy process. I am conscious of the disruption that can be cause if somebody dealing with a case leaves the organisation. Will Mr. Deering talk to us about the challenges? Is there anything that can be done to deal with this or has the office put in place its own systems to retain staff?