Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

As set out in section 13, the function of the industry and consumer consultative panels is to advise the regulatory authority. The industry consultative panel has a specific mandate to provide the authority with comments on the levies and fees imposed by the authority to fund its activities. Neither panel has any role in respect of the financial services ombudsman, which has its own council drawn from industry and consumer interests. Under section 57BE, the council has the function of prescribing the fees and levies to be paid by financial service providers to fund the Ombudsman's bureau. Since the Minister envisages that approximately half of the members of the Ombudsman council will be from the financial services industry, this should provide a sufficient input on such levies and fees. I hope the Deputy will revisit his amendment on that basis.

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