Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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205. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of complaints submitted to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman which are yet to be allocated to a complaint handler; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61088/21]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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206. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of complaints submitted to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman which are yet to be allocated to a complaint handler disaggregated by the number of weeks since they were first submitted with intervals of one week. [61089/21]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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207. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of complaints submitted to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman which remain unresolved disaggregated by the number of months since they were first submitted with intervals of one month. [61090/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 205 to 207, inclusive, together.

As the Deputy is aware, the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) is independent in the performance of his statutory functions and I have no role in the day to day workings of the office or in the decisions which he takes.

The FSPO has informed me that they receive approximately 400 to 450 new complaints each month. Once received the complaints are assigned to an officer to conduct an initial review and verification of the complaint, following this review, complaints that appear to have been submitted accompanied by all of the required documentation, and where the Complainant has exhausted the provider’s Internal Dispute Resolution mechanism in advance, are referred for Dispute Resolution. Alternately some files may be referred for further assessment where there is a potential jurisdictional matter to be considered or further information is required. There are currently 21 complaints awaiting assignment for initial review as at close of business on 06 December 2021.

Of the 21 complaints yet to be assigned to a complaint handler, all are waiting less than one week since first submitted. 8 of the 21 complaints are one business day since they were first submitted, with the remaining 13 submitted on 06 December 2021.

The FSPO has also informed me that as of 08 December 2021, there are 4,443 complaints open (not yet resolved). The table below sets out the on-hand complaints submitted to the FSPO from its establishment on 01 January 2018. The number of complaints on hand are shown by the year and month received.

The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman inherited 3,178 complaints from its predecessor bodies on its establishment on 01 January 2018, of which 354 remain open. The table below sets out those complaints, inherited from predecessor organisations, which remain open as at 8 December 2021 by year and month of receipt.

I am advised by the FSPO that the data contained in this response is extracted from a live database and therefore depicts complaint information at a specific moment in time. Data in this database is subject to ongoing verification and data categorisation as the understanding of the specific complaint is developed.