Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am just confirming with my officials that my understanding is right. This is not one party against the other. I cannot bring my wife, or my wife cannot bring an argument with me to the financial services ombudsman. It would be me and her bringing a complaint to the ombudsman where the financial services provider failed in its duty in terms of a pension we had taken out, for example, or a financial product. It is the financial institution that will be cross-examined, not one of the parties. The amendment Senator Murphy put down, and the one Deputy Doherty proposed and on which there was a comprehensive debate in the Dáil, related to where, because of martial breakdown or domestic abuse, one person wanted to proceed with a complaint against the financial institution, and currently this requires the two signatures. That is where we are all at one and I have written to the Minister for Justice to see if there is a way around it. It is never going to be that either party is cross-examined. It will be the financial institution being cross-examined. In terms of domestic abuse as an issue, this will never be dealt with by the financial services ombudsman.