Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 4, the subject of our discussion, seeks to require the Financial Services Ombudsman to include in his or her report the responses of financial services providers to complaints made against them and reported by the ombudsman. I am satisfied that the naming provisions in the Bill are sufficiently robust to provide consumers with information to assist them in making decisions about availing of the services of particular providers. A requirement for a response by providers is not necessary to strengthen this provision. Such a requirement would be unduly burdensome without adding a great deal of value.

This section is concerned with the outcome, which one hopes is satisfactory, to complaints made to the Financial Services Ombudsman by individuals. We are talking about people who have submitted a complaint and had that complaint resolved to their satisfaction. In that scenario, the amendment would not add a great deal of additional information to what is included in the existing provisions. In investigating any complaint against a financial services provider the ombudsman would seek a response from that provider before making a decision on whether to uphold the complaint.

Section 72(2) which amends section 57BF of the 1942 Act includes a provision that was inserted by way of amendment on Committee Stage in the other House. It refers to making provision for "the form and manner in which the information specified in the report is given, including provision for the categorisation of the different classes of regulated financial service providers identified in the report, the different classes of financial services to which the complaints by reason of which they are so identified relate, and the different descriptions of these complaints". The subsection which the Minister accepted on Committee Stage, by way of its provision regarding the categorisation of complaints, effectively allows for what the Senator is seeking in his amendment and adequately addresses the point he is raising. Accordingly, I am not in a position to accept the amendment.