Mr. Gerard O'Brien:

What MABS does in particular is personalise and take the label from a disabled person. The person becomes a client like any other client of MABS because he or she is getting a face-to-face service. I am sure the Deputy knows there are three MABS services in his county of Donegal. In larger counties like Kerry, there are two but there are outreach services in family resource centres. We like to think this face-to-face service complements what our funder Citizens Information provides via citizensinformation.ieor citizens information centres. They are rooted in communities. We think we provide a good offering to our communities because we are rooted and a have presence in them. To go off on a slight tangent, you could make the claim that anybody who comes to MABS is disabled in some form because he or she is financially stressed. They were previously people of huge capacity in some cases and a lot of capacity in others. They have been disabled so to speak by their circumstances. We saw it after the crash and we see it in mortgage arrears and unsecured debt. People are effectively disabled when they come to MABS and our job is to work with them on income maximisation and to try to make them financially independent again. In respect of financial inclusion for people with disabilities, the fact that we are present and rooted in communities is a great help in that regard.