Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 104: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will deal with a matter (details supplied) regarding a mortgage application in respect of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 13; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23505/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The decision on whether or not to grant individual mortgages must remain a commercial decision for individual lending institutions. It is important that each lending institution is allowed to assess properly and independently the individual risks that it is considering accepting. Mortgage lending must be undertaken on a sustainable and prudential basis by financial institutions and conform fully with regulatory requirements both in relation to the financial institution itself and also the safeguarding of the consumer's interests. However, if a consumer feels that he or she has been improperly treated, or that he or she has grounds for complaint for some other reason, then a complaint may be made directly to the financial institution concerned. If the consumer is not satisfied with the response received from the institution, there may be grounds to forward the complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman (FSO), who has statutory powers to investigate complaints against financial service providers. The FSO will only consider a case once the internal complaints procedure within the financial institution concerned has been followed.