Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 11:

In page 4, to delete lines 2 to 12 and substitute the following:

“Amendment of section 57CA of Principal Act

4. The Principal Act is amended by substituting the following for section 57CA (as inserted by section 16 of the Act of 2004):

“57CA.(1)The Financial Services Ombudsman may, as part of an investigation, in circumstances where he or she deems it appropriate, try to resolve a complaint by mediation.(2) The Financial Services Ombudsman shall engage with complainants and providers to ensure that the objective of mediation is understood to promote engagement in the mediation process.

(3) Participation in mediation by the parties to a complaint is voluntary, and a party may withdraw at any time.

(4) The Financial Services Ombudsman may, on reasonable grounds, abandon an attempt to resolve a complaint by mediation as he or she considers appropriate.

(5) Evidence of anything said or admitted during a mediation, or an attempted mediation, of a complaint, and any document prepared for the purposes of the mediation, are not admissible—

(a) in any subsequent investigation, under this Part, of the complaint (unless the person who made the admission, or to whom the document relates, consents to its admission), or

(b) in any proceedings before a court or a tribunal in the State.

(6) Where an attempt to resolve a complaint by mediation is unsuccessful, the Financial Services Ombudsman shall—

(a) deal with the complaint by adjudication, and

(b) notify the parties in writing accordingly.”.”.

I propose to replace section 57CA of the Central Bank Act with a text which mirrors the text in section 58 of the Government's Bill on mediation and details how the mediation process will work in complaints cases. The Government supports the voluntary ethos of mediation. It is important to focus on the fact mediation is successful when both parties agree that it is a voluntary process which attempts to resolve a dispute.

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