Finance Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages
Dail Éireann — 2024-11-05
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Pearse Doherty (SF), Donegal

The Minister made a point, and I am telling him now that those who have gone to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman have not done so for the good of their health. These are people who are in financial distress. He has stood there and said they have the same protection. He knows fine well they do not have the same protection because there is a major flaw with the legislation that he is supposed to fix. It has not been fixed and the Dáil is about to be dissolved. As that is simply factual, please do not insult people's intelligence and pretend that when the Government facilitated the sale to the vulture funds, the borrowers have the same protection; they do not. The Central Bank told the Minister that and the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman told him that.
They cannot investigate the complaints because of the legislation. It is important that the Minister withdraw the comments he made in the Dáil because it is insulting to people who are in that position and who are trying to go to the financial services ombudsman. They cannot do so because they are deemed outside of the reach of that ombudsman because, and only because, their loan was sold to a vulture fund within a certain period.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-11-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:53:25+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-11-05