Results 341-360 of 35,549 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Health: Cancer Services (6 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: 117. To ask the Minister for Health the action taken, and planned, to address the fact that only 30% of patients in Donegal receive day-case chemotherapy within the target time of three weeks, due to capacity constraints at Letterkenny University Hospital; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10170/25]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Departmental Inquiries (6 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: 299. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if information is available to the public relating to Land Registry applications; if the original documents are available for a third party; the consent required by a third party; if these documents fall under freedom of information; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10252/25]

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Will the Ombudsman be able to name the financial institution if the case against it was partially upheld?

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: Is that possible without the consent of the financial institution?

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: It is only known to people who attend the public hearing. There is a publication thereafter of the findings. There is also then a second thing. I will go back to a point and finish on it. It is a David and Goliath scenario. People come to me all the time and I tell them the FSPO is a great system because people do not have to get lawyers or barristers. They can take out a pen and...

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I thank the Minister of State.

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I agree with the question. I thank the Minister of State and his predecessor for engaging to deal with the loophole in this legislation. I also thank the officials from the Department and the FSPO for their input.

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: That is clear. Why does this arise? The FSPO cannot adjudicate on commercial decisions of banks that operate in line with the codes of conduct and all the rest. Can the Minister of State explain to us why there is some confusion in the legislation because what he has described seems to be clear regarding the existing practice? Why is this section needed? Why is an amendment to the...

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I mentioned this section earlier when talking about amendment No. 5. This obviously clarifies that the ombudsman may require witnesses to attend before him or her to be examined or cross-examined on oath or affirmation. This comes from the judgment we referred to in the case that involved the Workplace Relations Act 2015. It was found that the procedures were unsatisfactory in that...

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: On section 15, which we touched on in terms of internal dispute resolution and the power of the Minister to make the regulations, will it now be the case that all financial services firms and pension providers will have to have internal dispute resolution procedures? Will this amendment ensure this is the case? Is it a factor that there are many that do not have such procedures in place?

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: While the amendment is technical, is it correct that section 19 deals with the publication of information relating to complaints?

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: The issue I have, although the Minister of State will probably refer to fair procedure and all the rest, is that there is a huge difference between not naming Mrs. Doherty or whoever is taking a case that may not be upheld or is partially upheld and not naming the financial institution, such as Mars Capital. A David-and-Goliath battle that is being fought on this. I do not like the idea that...

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I hear that and it is to be welcomed, but does the section not deal with the power of the FSPO to publish the decisions and, therefore, give privacy or protection to the financial institutions under the guise of providing privacy to the individual making the complaint, whether he or she wants the hearing in public or not? None of us, or very few of us, will rock up to the hearing, but it is...

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I welcome that. As I said, the FSPO will operate within the rules that we set. It would be worth having that conversation with the Attorney General as well. The original Bill stems from the Zalewski case in the WRC. Any quasi-judicial organ of the State should have fair procedures, but fair procedures do not mean that someone should have to sign the complaint. Fair procedures can be...

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: This relates to SMEs. At present, a dual track or dual process is under way where people can appeal a credit decision by a participating institution to a credit reviewer, while at the same time submitting a complaint regarding the conduct to the FSPO. The section seems to clarify that the complainant may not make a complaint to the FSPO and it may not investigate the complaint in...

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I am still not clear, and that may fall on me, on what the Minister of State said about updating and clarifying. People will still have the ability to make a complaint to the FSPO regarding the conduct. What will they not have the ability to make a complaint to the FSPO about as a result of the legislation? This legislation will ensure there is no overlap, which means it will remove the...

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I heard what the Minister read from his note, but his note did not say that he could not do it. It stated that he had to be conscious of quasi-judicial procedures and so on. I have not seen legal opinion on this, and I do not have legal opinion on it, but I am certain there are ways in which we can address the matter if we put our heads together. Even if, as I said, we may not be able to...

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I am very disappointed with the response from the Minister of State and Department. This is a real issue. I have an example of this. Coercive control exists. These people have a right to do what everybody else can, which is to make a complaint to the financial services ombudsman about the conduct of financial institutions. The Minister of State is telling me he will not do anything about...

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: I thank the Minister of State for the response. As I said, I have no issue with the parts in this section. However, the clarification and answer the Minister of State gave me was that it always was this way and, therefore, it shall ever be. Without delaying this process, will the Department officials send me a note on why it should always be this way? I am not advocating that it should...

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Mar 2025)

Pearse Doherty: 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...