The first financial services ombudsman tells Laura Slattery that he wants his bureau to be respected

Joe Meade's vision for the newly created role of financial services ombudsman, the job declared his on Tuesday, is to have an office that displays "tact, diplomacy, sound judgment and, above all, steel".

It is perhaps lucky for aggrieved consumers who feel they have been stamped on by the might of financial services institutions that there are many who would argue that Meade is not short of steel.

As data protection commissioner, he repeatedly threatened the Government with High Court action for using an "invalid" ministerial direction to unconstitutionally store citizens' phone, fax and mobile call data for three years.

He also cracked down on politicians and lawyers who failed to register that they electronically stored personal information about members of the public and ruled against the Department of Education for illegally deducting pay from striking members of the Asti teachers' union by using an internal list that should have been used solely for deducting union subscriptions.

Now Meade says his aim is to have a financial services ombudsman's bureau that is respected and, to a degree, feared.

The new office amalgamates two existing voluntary ombudsman schemes - the insurance ombudsman and the ombudsman for credit institutions - under one statutory body.

The previous schemes' annual reports typically documented unresolved complaints where credit providers and insurance companies had dug their heels in, often compounding laughably inefficient administrative errors or contemptuous standards of customer service.

But the companies involved were never identified, making it impossible for consumers to know how to avoid doing business with the most blatant, persistent offenders.

The financial services ombudsman plans to identify at least some of the parties at fault, but "naming and shaming" is not a term with which Meade is comfortable.

"It's not my intention to shame anybody. I will consider naming in the annual report organisations that were not co-operative, where the situation was very grave and where the complaint should never have come to my office," he says.

There are other changes too. The statutory footing means Meade's office has powers of entry and seizure. And consumers will be able to make complaints against a wider range of financial services bodies, including stockbrokers, mortgage and insurance brokers, and credit unions.

Minister for Finance Brian Cowen may also bring firms that are currently unregulated - such as Chesterton Finance Company, the moneylender at the centre of a Garda investigation into IRA money laundering - within the ambit of the ombudsman's scheme.

Meade will have the power to award compensation up to a value of €250,000, a significant increase on the old limits.

But the office won't be a cash cow for disgruntled consumers trying their luck.

"Whilst compensation is an important factor, I do not see it as having to be used in every instance," Meade says.

Again, it is where disputes should have been settled long before they reached his office, as well as cases where wronged people have suffered knock-on financial troubles as a result of a company's intransigence, that awards will be made.

Financial services bodies and individual complainants can appeal Meade's rulings to the High Court, with Meade acting as co-party to any appeal made by the institution or firm if the complainant does not have the means or the desire to fight it.

But the High Court is the only external party that can overturn or have any influence on his decisions.

The ombudsman's bureau is a completely separate entity from the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (Ifsra), although Ifsra too often listens to the complaints of dissatisfied consumers on its helpline.

Meade met Ifsra representatives for an informal chat this week.

"I want to ensure that complaints that are proper to my area are referred to me," he says.

The traffic between the two organisations should be two-way.

"If a matter comes up that I feel is indicative of some kind of pattern, there is provision within the legislation to liaise with the consumer director of Ifsra."

One person being overcharged by a bank is an administrative error. Hundreds of people being overcharged while the bank keeps schtum is a national scandal, requiring Ifsra to take regulatory action.

So, do the incidences of widescale overcharging at AIB and National Irish Bank suggest that consumers can't rely on banks' internal procedures to do anything more than cover the tracks?

"My earnest hope is that institutions will treat customers properly and fairly," says Meade. "An ombudsman is the last resort for a complaint."

It is a big job - two jobs in one and then some - which is perhaps why the services of the insurance ombudsman, Caroline Gill, and the ombudsman for credit institutions, Gerry Murphy, have been retained as deputy ombudsman.

Gill is also acting financial services ombudsman until Meade formally takes up the job on May 16th.

The bureau, which will initially be based on Upper Merrion Street, should be fully operational within five months and further details of the scheme will be published on June 30th. But, in the meantime, Meade still has some unfinished business at the data protection office, including his final annual report.

A native of Co Clare who has formerly worked in the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg, Meade has been data protection commissioner for five years.

His term would be up in September, although he has been given no indication that the contract would not be renewed. It is just time to move on.

As 30-40 per cent of personal data and direct marketing complaints are related in some way to the financial sector, Meade sees the ombudsman's job as an extension to his current position.

Most of the big data protection issues have been addressed, he says. An amendment to the Data Protection Act was introduced in 2003, awareness of data privacy concerns has increased and prosecutions have been made.

Ultimately, Meade did not get his way on the thorny issue of data retention.

Although Minister for Justice Michael McDowell's last-minute amendment to the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Bill did give legislative cover to the unconstitutional direction ordering mandatory data retention by phone operators for three years, it was not exactly in the form Meade wanted.

McDowell had promised a full, specific bill on data retention, while Meade had hoped that the period of retention would be kept to a six-month limit cited under EU data protection law.

"I expressed my concerns about the period of retention but, ultimately, Parliament decides and I accept what Parliament has done."

Nevertheless, Meade is not shy about standing up to external pressures. "The legislation has laid down that I am completely independent in how I deal with complaints. Ifsra or the Government or anybody else can't tell me how to run my show."

More information for consumers is available from www.financialombudsman.ie. The bureau can be contacted by phone at 01 613 0892 or by e-mailing enquiries@financialombudsman.ie