Credit Review Bill 2024: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Robert Troy (FF), Longford-Westmeath

The recourse is through the office of the financial ombudsman. The office of the financial ombudsman is always there when anybody feels any financial institution or pension institution is not acting in an appropriate manner. In the most recent budget, that office received a substantial increase in funding from the State to ensure it could hire more people so that cases could be dealt with in a much more efficient way.
Senator Murphy talked about the number of cases where the Credit Review Office had recommended approval and the banks did not take that recommendation. A total of 78% of recommendations were accepted, with 608 positive cases, which means 22% were rejected. Ultimately, it is a commercial decision for the bank. We cannot force banks against their will, but it has been shown to be hugely positive when there are 78% in the positive.
On the opportunity to extend further, there are provisions within the Bill to allow the Minister for Finance to increase the amount that can be reviewed, from €3 million to €5 million, taking account of how SME business lending evolves into the future. There is also an opportunity to extend it, for argument, to the credit unions. We amended the credit union legislation earlier this year, which allows credit unions lend more to SMEs and non-bank lenders. There is provision within the Bill to look at that into the future, but it was felt that, at the moment, the predominance of cases are going through high street banks. We did not want to put an administrative burden on new non-bank lenders at this stage, but it can be kept under review. Part of the remit of the Credit Review Office is to inform the Minister for Finance of trends, relevant data and whether any particular change is needed.
I welcome the fact that we have broad support across the Seanad and in the Dáil. That is a realisation that all of us in public life are here to support enterprise, SMEs, farmers and, ultimately, jobs. It is good to see that we can work collaboratively on occasions like this.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21