Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

The Central Bank produced statistics earlier this year which showed that across the general population personal debt is now 120% of disposable income. We can only presume, in the absence of proper statistics from the Minister's Department that it is at a higher level among social welfare recipients. Given that MABS is under resourced and does not have a widespread network, does the Minister believe his Department should play a greater role in ensuring that personal debt is avoided to the greatest extent possible among social welfare recipients? What additional measures does the Minister intend to put in place given that the promised legislation on MABS appears to have been pushed lower on the list of legislation?

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