Results 11,461-11,480 of 35,639 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Funding (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: 683. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if an application (details supplied) for funding was received for road repairs on Arranmore Island; when a decision will be made; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47587/19]

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Tionscadail Oidhreachta (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: 684. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht an dtig léi an stádas reatha maidir le Togra Turasóireachta Shliabh Liag a chur in iúl; an bhfuil an togra críochnaithe go hiomlán nó an bhfuil oibreacha agus gnéithe éagsúla de fós le déanamh; cé mhéad airgead a caitheadh go dtí seo; cé mhéad...

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Údarás na Gaeltachta (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: 691. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of full-time and part-time jobs supported by Údarás na Gaeltachta client companies in Gleann Cholm Cille, Cill Charthaigh, and An Charraig, County Donegal; the job creation targets and employment plans which have been devised for the region; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47805/19]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: I welcome Mr. Deering to the committee. For the purpose of transparency, while not a connected person, a close relative of mine has a current complaint before Mr. Deering's office in relation to a tracker mortgage. That probably tells its own story because it was one of the 80 original complaints made to the then Financial Services Ombudsman. As we know now, more than 40,000 people had...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: What caused the change in attitude by the financial institutions? If Mr. Deering had not gone public at the end of the summer, would we probably be in the same situation? Was there much push-back from Mr. Deering's office in relation to this? How long was this going on before the issue was resolved?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: I will come back to the tracker examination. Before I do so, the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman faces a challenge regarding recruitment and retention of staff. Mr. Deering provided the committee with figures. The service had 53 staff in January 2018 and has recruited 43 staff since. Doing the mathematics, that should mean a staff of 96 but there are only 60 staff in the office....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: I want to go on to time limits. Mr. Deering mentioned that while the change in legislation removed the prior barrier that existed and introduced the knowledge criteria that certain time limits still apply. I remember when I sponsored the original legislation we had a lengthy discussion about long-term financial services and so on. I argued against it but eventually accepted it on the basis...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: I assume, and maybe I am not correct in this, but that the majority of these cases - I know the Ombudsman's office was dealing with 1,174 cases at the end of October and there may have been some tracker cases before that, post-examination - would not have been able to be heard were it not for the change in the rules, allowing for the three years of knowledge. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: I strongly support the publication of the Ombudsman's office's findings. We dealt with that in my legislation in the category of findings etc. because it empowers consumers to see that they may fall into a particular category. Does that cause a particular timing issue whereas the three year rule states that they should have knowledge of the conduct because the customer could have got a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: When we dealt with the legislation, I was a little surprised on this because there was a provision which Mr. Deering dealt with on the powers of the Financial Services Ombudsman to extend the duration. He states - I wish to tease it out - that not only must reasonable grounds exist but there must be a particular reason to extend the time. There is no requirement for the "particular reason"...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: Could the reasonable grounds test in that section of the legislation not be satisfied by the fact that consumers were reasonably waiting for the Central Bank to carry out its examination, which took a number of years to conclude and has just concluded now, so therefore the reasonable grounds test for each and every person who has a tracker complaint is satisfied because that is reasonable....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: It is probably not an issue at this time in this investigation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: Under section 44 the Ombudsman shall determine a complaint to be inadmissible where it was made after the expiry of the time limits specified in section 51. Section 51 is the section that allows one to extend it but the test of that may be quite difficult. In terms of the language in the legislation, would it be preferable if it said that the ombudsman "may" determine, as opposed to "shall"...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: That goes back to the original point about the time limits themselves in the context of the legislation. On the tracker mortgage numbers, Mr. Deering mentioned that there were 1,174. Deputy Michael McGrath teased through some of this but it is my understanding that 234 complaints were resolved through mediation. Does Mr. Deering know if they were resolved in favour of the complainant or...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: In all 37 of the settlement cases, there was a benefit to the consumer.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: If someone gets a tracker mortgage back, that would be worth a substantial amount of money. That would be a large settlement from the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman's office. These are people who first had to go through the bank's internal systems, the so-called independent appeals process and then to the ombudsman's office. Will the ombudsman be publishing the brief relating to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: It is good to hear that, because out-of-court settlements and confidentiality clauses can often provide unwarranted protection. Is the ombudsman seeing different approaches being adopted by financial institutions to mediation and settlements? Are they all similar in terms of their engagement or do some need to be pushed along the road?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: A total of 146 cases were closed during investigation, adjudication or legal services processes. Does that mean that there was nowhere else for those cases to go or that there was no case to be answered?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: Through the independent appeals process? Where would the offer come from?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Tracker Mortgages and Differential Pricing in Insurance: Discussion (19 Nov 2019)

Pearse Doherty: These are people who have made a complaint to the ombudsman but the appeals process-----