Mr. Ger Deering:

In terms of the increase, there was a very significant increase in complaints to the financial ombudsman quite a number of years ago on foot of the collapse of the economy. However, if we take that spike out, there has been a steady growth in recent years.

On the Deputy's question on whether complaints are made in particular areas, it changes. When the office was initially established, it received more complaints in the area of insurance but that has changed and we now receive more complaints in the area of banking. An issue like the tracker mortgage scandal had an impact on the number of banking complaints received. Last year, the vast majority of Covid-related complaints were receive were actually insurance related.

I do not have the historical data in front of me, but we can furnish the members with the data on the number of complaints going back over the years.