Date: Friday 7 March 2014
Time: 11:00 am with registration from 10:30 am
Venue: Buswells Hotel, 23 -27 Molesworth Street, Dublin 2
The report authors, Paul Joyce, FLAC's Senior Policy Analyst and Dr Stuart Stamp, Research Associate, NUI Maynooth, will present the report and its findings as well as a set of recommendations around consumer-proofing our legislative framework into the future.
REDRESSING THE IMBALANCE critically examines the legal protections available for consumers of credit and other financial services in Ireland. It identifies not only a number of serious deficiencies and gaps in such protections, but more fundamentally and worryingly, a systemic approach that has consistently served to prioritise the interests of financial service institutions over those of consumers. The report provides a detailed account of how European-level developments, piecemeal national legislation and conservative consumer regulation have combined to leave certain Irish financial service consumers –and in particular consumers of credit and distressed mortgage borrowers - particularly exposed.
Drawing on the experiences of consumers and their advocates, the study further highlights how such exposure can be compounded by difficulties accessing and using processes ostensibly designed to facilitate the resolution of complaints against providers. The report concludes with a series of recommendations as to how the imbalance in the Irish legal apparatus might be redressed from a financial service user perspective.
As space is limited pre-registration is essential. Please RSVP to events@flac.ie or phone 01 887 3600 and ask for Amy Heffron.