Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 4, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following:“Amendment of Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005
3. Section 290(3)(c) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 is amended by the insertion of “the Parish of the Travelling People or any credit union for the purposes of the Lough Payment Scheme, or” before “any other body that may be prescribed”.”.

This is an interesting consequence of certain decisions made by the Houses. Recently, at the launch of the MABS report in Ballyfermot, representatives from the National Traveller MABS raised with me a consequence of the discontinuation of a facility which allowed for the deduction of loan repayments from social welfare payments. This was a loan guarantee scheme but it was not done willy-nilly. The scheme had developed over several years. In recent years the National Traveller MABS established a loan guarantee scheme to support Travellers in accessing affordable and mainstream credit through their local credit unions. The idea was to tackle loan sharks and so on, but also to help as part of the household budget scheme. The scheme has been discontinued and this is causing some problems. The National Traveller MABS has identified some of the problems for Travellers who get into difficulty.
The National Traveller MABS produced a report in September - I am unsure whether the Minister has seen it - calling on the household budget scheme to be extended to include what the service terms the Lough payment scheme. The name for the scheme emerged because it was jointly managed with the Lough Credit Union in Cork and the Cork MABS. It was extended beyond these organisations, and 25 MABS services supported 400 clients in paying debt via the scheme. The scheme is now at an end. Examples of the debts that were being paid but that cannot now be deducted include credit union loans, Garda fines and payments to private debt companies - for example, if people bought furniture on the never-never - as well as money owed to private landlords.
I gather at the moment only one or two types of payment can be deducted from a social welfare payment, including local authority rents and repayments to the Department. Will the Minister examine the matter? If is too late for this legislation then, at the very least, the scheme could be introduced in other forthcoming legislation - the Minister mentioned February. It is not simply a willy-nilly scheme. It took some time to work out and it had been working well. At the moment a person can make an arrangement for utilities to be deducted from social welfare payments as well.
Anyway, the National Traveller MABS is seeking a change such that if a credit union agrees to give a loan to clear a debt then the loan could be deducted. The report is available. This was raised at the first engagement by the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys. He would have been aware of it because people from the service managed to talk to him on the day as well. That is my appeal.