John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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207. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will outline the number of agencies or quangos established by his Department in each of the past ten years and the cost to the State of funding each one. [24933/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Within the last 10 years, two State Agencies have been established by my department, the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman and Home Building Finance Ireland.

The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) is an independent statutory body established by the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman Act 2017. Its remit is to resolve complaints from consumers, including small businesses and other organisations, against regulated financial service and pension providers, where those complaints have not previously been resolved.

The FSPO is funded through two distinct sources - the financial services complaints are funded by a levy on the financial services industry and the pensions complaints are funded by the Exchequer. The financial services industry levy typically funds c. 96% of the FSPO’s budget with a 4% Exchequer grant, as occurred in 2024.

The FSPO Act 2017 commenced on 1 January 2018 and established the Office of the FSPO. This involved the merging of the Financial Services Ombudsman Bureau and the Pensions Ombudsman. The funding model for the newly established FSPO was based on the dual track funding approach that already existed for each respective organisation. In this way, the existing levy on financial services industry was maintained for financial services complaints and an Exchequer grant would continue to fund the pension complaints via the Department of Finance Vote. Prior to 2018, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection were responsible for the funding of the Office of the Pensions Ombudsman.

Since the establishment of the FSPO, the cost of the pensions complaints service in each of the years is as follows:

Home Building Finance Ireland (HBFI) was established under the Home Building Finance Ireland Act 2018, for the purpose of funding the construction of new homes in Ireland. It commenced lending in 2019. In line with the HBFI Act 2018, it is funded by a €20 million equity investment from the Minister for Finance (funded from the assets of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF)) and a €730 million loan facility from the ISIF. HBFI operates as a commercial entity and since its establishment has not received any additional funding from the State.