Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 6, between lines 8 and 9, to insert the following: “(2) Section 44 of the Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (6):

“(6A) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Act, the Ombudsman may, where he or she considers it appropriate to do so to protect the interests of a complainant, accept a complaint with respect to a joint account or joint policy in instances where all owners of that account or policy have not consented to the complaint.”.”.

This amendment seeks to amend the principal Act by the insertion of the following:

Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Act, the Ombudsman may, where he or she considers it appropriate to do so to protect the interests of a complainant, accept a complaint with respect to a joint account or joint policy in instances where all owners of that account or policy have not consented to the complaint.

What we are trying to do is self-explanatory. The amendment is intended to try to address the deficiencies in the legislation as regards complaints from people who have jointly held mortgages or other financial services. This is a consequence, in certain circumstances, of empowering an individual to block another from seeking justice or availing of consumer protection. This can be done out of spite or coercive control and in these instances the ombudsman is blocked from taking the complaint forward. There are situations in relation to this and what this amendment does is that it does not say it will happen automatically but it allows the ombudsman to hear the complaint. The ombudsman may, where he or she considers it appropriate to do so to protect the interest of a complainant, accept a complaint with respect to a joint account or joint policy. This is a sensible amendment and I am interested to hear the Minister of State's response and whether there is another way he believes this issue can be resolved.

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