Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

For what it is worth, I think Deputy Doherty’s interpretation is correct. I would also appreciate the Minister of State’s clarification on the matter raised by the Deputy. It seems to me there is a particularly broad definition captured in the amendment. If that is the case, it is very welcome. There was a very wide lacuna in the legislation that was identified quite some years ago by Deputy Doherty and others in opposition at the time. We have individually and collectively campaigned to have this lacuna addressed. It is a pretty egregious loophole to which the Minister of State and Deputy Doherty have referred, where somebody who wanted to make a complaint about the conduct of a financial services firm, a fund or credit servicing firm and the complaint involved conduct prior to regulation, the complaint could not be accommodated by law by the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman. It is to the Minister of State’s credit that he has listened to the Opposition - finally, the Government has listened - and has addressed what is a very real problem for all too many people. We know from our experiences as constituency TDs and as spokespersons for finance the number of people across the country who have been damaged - families and businesses destroyed - because of the behaviour of funds and credit servicing firms that acted with impunity and simply could not be held to account by the FSPO because of this loophole in law, which prevented them from having a complaint about something a firm did prior to being regulated investigated.

This is a very welcome development and something that was raised repeatedly on Second Stage. We requested that the then Minister for Finance, Deputy Chambers would come to the Dáil on Committee Stage to work with the Opposition or, indeed, to present his own proposition for how this would be addressed. In anticipation of that, Deputy Doherty and I have separately tabled amendments, which will be dealt with later in a grouping, that seek to achieve the same thing the Minister of State is achieving here. This is a good initiative. It is positive and welcome, if belated.

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