Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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37. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will address a matter (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13736/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Pensions Ombudsman has power to make determinations which are legally binding on parties to a complaint or dispute, subject to appeal to the High Court. However, a relatively small percentage of disputes are resolved in this way as the bulk are normally dealt with through mediation between the parties and the giving of general information and/or advice in the form of a report.

Typically 18% of complaints received are outside the terms of reference of the Office, cannot be investigated for legal reasons, or are withdrawn by the complainant.

The time taken to close a case can vary from a single day to several years depending on the nature and complexity of the case itself, the number of parties involved, the completeness and accuracy of the information given to the Office, the completeness and speed of response by those named in the complaint or dispute, the dependence or otherwise on other external processes, and the willingness or otherwise of parties to cooperate fully with the investigation.

I am informed that, in the case raised by the Deputy, the time taken was as a result of a number of factors outside the control of the Pensions Ombudsman, notably that new issues were raised on a number of occasions by the complainant which required further investigation in each instance. It eventually transpired that the core of the complaint related to an alleged agreement made in the process of a redundancy exercise not honoured by the trustees. An agreement of this sort is outside the legal remit of the Pensions Ombudsman. I understand that a preliminary view was issued in June 2013, and the complainant withdrew the complaint the following month.