John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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418. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of complaints submitted to the Financial Services Ombudsman in each of the past five years; if there is a backlog of cases to be dealt with; if so, the number of cases in this backlog; the length of time each has been waiting for a decision; if he will provide details of the delay in processing a complaint submitted by a company (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11798/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) is an independent and impartial statutory body that plays an important role in the robust consumer protection framework in place in Ireland to support consumers of financial products and services.

Firstly, the FSPO cannot publicly comment on individual complaints or confirm receipt of complaints in relation to any individual financial service provider, pension provider or complainants. Members of the Oireachtas seeking information relating to the FSPO can do so through a dedicated email address in accordance with Circular 25/2016.

The FSPO provides an independent, fair, confidential and free service to consumers to help resolve complaints. Complaints are resolved through either informal mediation, leading to a potential settlement agreed between the parties, or formal investigation and adjudication, leading to a legally binding decision.

They resolve a majority of complaints through their mediation services. In 2024, 86% of complaints that closed, were closed within 12 months of the complaint being made. This was mainly through resolution in the Dispute Resolution Services (mediation) and early-stage assessments and interventions in their Customer Operations and Information Management department.

For tracker mortgage related complaints, the average time from receipt to closure in 2024 was 8.4 months. For all other complaints, the time from receipt to closure in 2024 was 7.2 months.

Certain more complex complaints, including those requiring a formal adjudication process or formal jurisdictional assessment, or both, take longer to resolve. This reflects the fact that adjudications by the Ombudsman are legally binding and accordingly, it is important that every decision arrived at has followed due process and allowed both parties to make submissions and offer observations on the evidence and on the other party’s submissions, as appropriate.

Table 1 shows the number of complaints received from 2020 to 2024.

Table 2 breaks down this complaints data by year and month received. There are currently 5,946 complaints on hand as of 11 March 2025. Most complaints are resolved in early stages or through mediation without the need to issue a legally binding decision. Accordingly, many of these complaints will not ultimately require a legally binding decision.

Almost all complaints ongoing for over 18 months are in the FSPO’s formal investigation or legal review processes. The rigor of these formal processes, by their nature, will take longer in general for complaints to transit through.

By way of example, some of the reasons that contribute to the timeline for all processes, but particularly the formal investigation process include:

• The volume of ongoing submissions from the parties addressing the evidence under consideration during a complaint investigation.
• The requirement for a formal jurisdictional determination, separate from the investigation of the merits of the complaint made, for instance, if the time limits are at issue, or are challenged by one of the parties.
• The need to place complaints on hold for a period, because of litigation which has not yet concluded, where it is appropriate to pause the investigation of certain other complaints, because the outcome is likely to have an impact on those other complaints.
• The need to place complaints on hold for a period, at the request of the complainant. This may be for a number of reasons, including reasons of personal circumstance or their wish to seek independent legal or financial advice prior to proceeding in our process, or the need to procure the consent/signature of a joint owner of the account or policy.