Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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88. To ask the Minister for Finance if there have been technical issues with the Financial Services Ombudsman's online complaint submission process; if so, the issue; the length of time it lasted; the number of complaints that were delayed or lost as a result; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41011/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Firstly, I must point out that the Financial Services Ombudsman is independent in the carrying out of his duties.  I have no role in the day to day workings of the office.

However, the Financial Services Ombudsman has informed me that he received 4,513 complaints in 2016. Of these 1,504 were submitted through the online complaint form. It is the Financial Service Ombudsman’s experience with online complaint forms that they are user friendly and a convenient method for consumers to submit their complaint. I understand that there have occasionally been minor technical issues; the Financial Service Ombudsman confirms that these would be a low in number (less than 1% of complaint forms submitted) and when they were identified, these issues were resolved usually within the same day.  The Financial Services Ombudsman is not aware of any complaint forms lost as a result of the online system; once a complaint form is submitted, it is retrievable in the system.