Results 161-180 of 5,754 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: That is extremely reassuring and I thank Ms McGovern for jumping in.

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Mr. Sloyan will appreciate that we get petitions in here frequently for strange things. One of the strange ones before us right now and we have discussed it at length, thanks to the Chairman and indeed our wonderful support staff, is the area of insurance, specifically insurance for thatched properties. It has become a bugbear in here. As of right now, and the Chairman will correct me if I...

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: The other area of interest to me in dealing with State organisations, and I have to hold my hands up here because I am one person who is involved with it, is dealing with pensions. There is a belief among some of us in the Oireachtas that, when you are dealing with State agencies, they delay it so long in the hope that you will die before they have to answer the question. How long is a...

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Okay, that is fine.

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I remember using the office of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman many years ago with regard to one of the banks which had a charge for an unauthorised overdraft. The overdraft was 50p at the time, if I am not mistaken. The ombudsman's office was fantastic. It was the principle behind the thing. There was no notification for the customer that they would incur a charge if they...

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: On the issue of pensions, I believe that the post-2013 pension is already beginning to cause problems within the forces, the fire service, An Garda, etc. I do not know how much interaction the ombudsman's office has had in the area of pensions, but we had a pension change in the public service in 1996, if I am not mistaken, again in 2004 and then in 2013. On the 2004 change, anecdotally I...

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: The FSPO does not see a role for itself in forming the policy. It is one thing for those of us who are representing the services I am talking about, or for the services' representative bodies themselves, to bring forward requests for policy change, etc. We can produce all of the empirical evidence we want but at the end of the day it is empirical evidence coming from our side rather than...

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Right now we have a piece of legislation passing through the House on the Court Service, immigration and social welfare. There are about ten different things stuck in it. Right at the end of the legislation, there is a piece on superannuation. One would want to have ten pieces of primary legislation available in order to cross-reference what it is we are changing. That point has been made...

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: For what it is worth, my experience dealing with the FSPO and other ombudsmen has generally been that it takes one letter from the ombudsman for people to realise they have to sit down and talk to each other to resolve problems. For that, I am extremely grateful. I am mindful of one pensioner, back in the 1970s, who retired on a pension of £15 a month. A year later, his colleague...

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: It seems mediation is a key tool used by the ombudsman. How happy are the witnesses that the mediation system works, particularly since the financial crash? Since the financial crash, there have been people within this organisation here who have set themselves up as mediators between lending institutions and distressed mortgage holders and the likes. Does Mr. Sloyan see mediation as a key...

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I will let the Chairman move in for a while.

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Cathaoirleach. It is great that I am one of only three members present today. On complaints, where do the majority of complaints received by the office of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman come from? Are they coming from banking or from insurance?

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Has the office received any such complaints?

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: That is the people who cannot sleep at night. They constantly send me emails and tell me I put them to sleep.

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: The Chairman and other members of the committee have shown great compassion for this case but mental health issues are always down to the professionals working in the field. I do not believe this committee is in a position to dictate to the local mental health assessors how this person should be treated. It is a heartbreaking case. The Chairman made that point himself when speaking to me....

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: This is something that will pass through the Houses of the Oireachtas. It does not have any place in the petitions committee. It is up to the Legislature, which is put there by the public.

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Sadly, too many of us who have pension queries are already in the departure lounge and we may not last long enough to get an answer to the question, which is always a problem. Regarding the mediation process, I am a former leader of a trade union so I am very familiar with mediation. Sometimes, it is much easier to do mediation without physical appearances. Sometimes the level of anxiety,...

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I wonder about those we used to call "loan sharks", the guys who operate on the edge of the financial world offering small loans. We hear anecdotal stories about them waiting outside the post office to take the children's allowance off a lady. How prevalent is that practice now? Is it something the FSPO has statistics on?

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I am delighted to hear the FSPO is increasing employment at the office. Are all those being hired people from financial services, chartered accountants, etc?

Committee on Public Petitions: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman: Annual Report and Other Matters (27 Jun 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I ask that when we have the ombudsman before the committee in the future, we try to do it mid-term rather than coming up to the end of the year. There is so much going on in the Houses right now, with legislation being rushed through, last-minute meetings and all that sort of stuff as we come to the recess. It is a bit unfair on the witnesses to have such a small turnout. Ordinarily, we...