Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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121. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of complaints received by the Financial Services Ombudsman regarding the sale of whole-of-life insurance policies over the past five years; the number of complaints upheld; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11041/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Financial Services Ombudsman is independent in the carrying out of his duties to investigate, mediate and adjudicate complaints about the conduct of regulated financial service providers.  I, as Minister for Finance, have no role in the day to day workings of the office of the Ombudsman or in the decisions which he takes.

A "Whole of Life" policy pays a specified amount on death provided that premiums are paid up until the death of the policyholder.  In response to previous similar Parliamentary Questions, the Central Bank advised that premiums for such policies are not fixed and can increase over the duration of the policy.

The Office of the Financial Services Ombudsman has informed me that it does not have a product category on its Case Management System which refers to Whole of Life Insurance Policies only. The Ombudsman has advised that he collects data in relation to all Life policies and does not differentiate between them. For this reason, it is not possible to provide the numbers of complaints upheld in relation to this particular category of insurance. However, the Ombudsman does have limited information on Whole of Life policies and he was able to provide details on the number of new complaints received over the last five years:

2010 - 168

2011 - 152

2012 - 218

2013 - 193

2014 - 105

The Ombudsman has confirmed that no findings in relation to mis-sale of Whole of Life policies have been issued by his Office in the past five years.