Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In the context of monitoring, I am seriously concerned that individuals will not be able to gain access to PIPs as a result of cherry-picking. Is the system as set out under the legislation flexible enough to allow the ISI to appoint public practitioners? How will it be able to monitor matters? For example, will it be in a position to know that someone approached a practitioner and that either he or she did not take up the offer of service or the practitioner did not accept the custom because he or she was of the view that the individual involved did not have sufficient assets and that an adequate return would not be forthcoming? Will Mr. O'Connor comment on that matter?

Will the ISI report on the number of times the banks use the veto in order to refuse solutions proposed by PIPs? Will Mr. O'Connor indicate how the system will apply to people who have left the State? I visited Perth last year during a speaking tour of Australia and I met many Irish people with young families who are extremely angry and who are working there in order to try to part-service their mortgages here. The position is similar in London and elsewhere. There are people who cannot afford to maintain their mortgages but who are trying their best to do so. Will these individuals be able to avail of this service or will they be prevented from doing so because they are living outside the jurisdiction?

My final question relates to MABS. I understand that the ISI will be taking staff on secondment from the latter but I am not sure whether the reports in this regard are accurate. The ISI has 78 staff at present. If it does second staff from MABS, how many will be involved? Yesterday I received a reply to a parliamentary question I tabled to the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, in respect of MABS. If a person living in County Donegal contacts MABS today, the earliest appointment of which he or she will be able to avail will be in December. If someone in Meath does so, he or she will not get an appointment until after Hallowe'en. People mainly approach MABS in the first instance, but if one cannot get an appointment with it until December, the banks will have ruled one as being uncooperative in the interim. Is the ISI taking staff on secondment from MABS and, if so, how many? What impact will this have on the service?