Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The CIB is an independent agency and the chief executive officer is the Accounting Officer for the board and is responsible for ensuring all public moneys are expended in a proper manner. The CIB was requested to do this by the interdepartmental group, the group working on mortgages, because of the desire to get people who are indebted with mortgage debt to be in contact with their lenders, and to offer those people an advisory service. The dedicated helpline was established last year and it has been updated for all the changes in the law. The accounting advice is provided by the various members of accounting bodies throughout the country. The decision and request by the interdepartmental group, which included the Department of Finance and representation from the Central Bank, was that an information campaign should be launched. The CIB was asked to do this and it proceeded with a single tender on grounds of urgency. As I said, the cost was divided between the designers of the campaign and the media partner, which organised the media time.

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