Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I have read of another case, which I believe differs from that to which Deputy Burton refers, in which an individual finding was made to the effect that a financial institution had not treated an individual fairly and the same treatment was being meted out to thousands of others. It was found that the Financial Services Ombudsman could not impose a requirement on that company that would relate to all 1,000 affected people. Instead, he would be obliged to deal with each of the other 999 cases individually before they would get their refunds. If this case as reported in the newspapers constitutes a defect in the legislation, Members should include something to correct it before passing this legislation. A scenario in which a malpractice is unearthed but one is obliged to have hundreds of cases taken individually sounds like an extraordinary hole in the system.

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