Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Well said. I raise a concerning case from Limerick that highlights fundamental flaws in the workings of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman’s office. It concerns a family who lost their husband in very tragic circumstances, only to discover that the pension provision he had made for himself and his family through his long employment with Analog Devices would be withheld from them. A sum in the region of €670,000 belonging to this individual had been accumulated in Analog’s pension plan in his name but, to date, has never been handed over to the family, who were plunged into financial crisis by the sudden death of their husband and father. Instead, the trustees of the pension fund made a decision to pay this money to the employer in 2017.

This serious issue was appealed to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman. It took two years for the FSPO to come to a decision but, in 2019, it decided not to uphold the appeal made by the family. There then followed a High Court case whereby the widow appealed the FSPO decision on a point of law. It took two more years before the High Court upheld this appeal in late 2021 and vitiated the FSPO decision on the basis that the FSPO had erred in law in the approach taken to making this decision. The High Court only has statutory power to vitiate the FSPO decision rather than substitute its own decision. Therefore, in effect, the High Court handed the process of appeal back to the FSPO with an instruction to take a fresh decision, taking into account that it erred in law in its original approach. Unbelievably, in late 2023, the FSPO made a preliminary decision based on the same error in law that it made in its first decision. To describe the FSPO’s dealings with this family as grossly incompetent would be an understatement. They have been handed from pillar to post, with changing personnel at every turn. They now face a denial of their appeal that actually ignores an earlier High Court ruling that was issued on the same case.

I cannot begin to describe the upset and trauma this has caused the entire family who have been through seven years of hell and now face having to take a second case to the High Court. Effectively, they are in Groundhog Day. They cannot move forward. They already got one decision and they will get the same decision again from the High Court after having to spends tens of thousands of more money, and it goes back to the FSPO again. It is entirely unsatisfactory. It is not good enough because when families like this one are let down in the worst way regarding their pension entitlements, they are entirely dependent on the FSPO to stand up for them and their rights, and this is not happening. It is clear that the FSPO is under-resourced, underfunded and undermanaged. I am calling for an urgent debate on this issue. I also appeal to the Analog Devices trustees to take a fresh look at this case, which is well known to them and remains a source of fundamental injustice.