Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

That we could continue to recognise their valuable role in society was important, but it was given no notice. Little attention was also given to recent announcements on the increased allocation to counselling grants, supports for people experiencing marriage difficulties and grants to family support agencies. It may be the case that we are not giving enough attention to good news.

The past month saw two other announcements. The first was on the financial services and the main banking institutions that comprise the Irish Banking Federation, IBF. It related to a protocol between the Money Advice and Budgetary Service, MABS, and the IBF on a repayment plan for people with extreme personal debts so that, if one follows the plan and MABS negotiates with the financial services on one's behalf, the IBF will accept the plan as a payment and will not resort to legal action. This protocol was signed and announced last week, but there was not a dicky bird about it anywhere.

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