Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have several more questions, after which I will bring in other members. Will Mr. Deering explain the difference between the role of the Central Bank and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, and that of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman? Will he comment on resources and staff availability? He pointed out that despite the impacts of the pandemic, his office has increased the number of complaints closed by 35% to 6,193. His efforts and those of his staff in this regard are to be commended.

Mr. Deering also indicated that he inherited 3,000 complaints in 2018 and there has been an additional workload following on from the tracker mortgage issue. He noted that while his office received 492 tracker cases during the year, it closed 582 cases. That still leaves 1,200 cases on hand at the end of the year. This indicates that while the office is making progress, there is a difficulty in getting through the build-up of cases. A response that my colleague, Deputy Doherty, received to a parliamentary question earlier this year detailed that more than 4,600 complaints to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman remained unresolved, with some 2,865 of them having been submitted more than 12 months ago. How many complaints in total are on the ombudsman's books at this time?

Finally, does the office have the resources and specialist staffing Mr. Deering feels are needed to get on top of its workload?