Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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46. To ask the Minister for Finance if, in relation to the complaints process of the Financial Services Ombudsman and in general when a person is making a complaint to a financial service provider, he will ensure that a legal personal representative of an estate is in no way treated differently to a person that is alive, including in the right to access all files and documents relevant to such a complaint; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42214/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Firstly, I must point out that the Financial Services Ombudsman is independent in the performance of his statutory functions and it would not be appropriate for me to comment on how he performs those duties.

The Financial Services Ombudsman deals independently with complaints from consumers about their dealings with financial service providers. Any private individual or any business, club, charity, partnership or trust with a turnover of less than €3 million per year may make a complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman. A legal personal representative may submit a complaint to the Financial Service Ombudsman on behalf of a deceased’s estate. The Financial Service Ombudsman has confirmed that once it has been established that the person bringing the complaint is the legal personal representative, these complaints are handled in the normal manner and in accordance with the usual procedures.  

On the issue more generally, the Central Bank has informed me that Chapter 10 of the Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Code 2012 (‘the Code’) sets out how regulated firms must handle complaints received from consumers.  While provision 3.7 of the Code sets out how a regulated entity must deal with a person acting under a power of attorney, the Code does not include any specific requirements on dealing with persons with legal authority to act on behalf of a deceased consumer.