Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I spent perhaps three years trying to persuade the Minister's Department that the Money Advice & Budgeting Service should be able to accompany people to court. We only got the go-ahead for that less than a year ago, and it has already proven to be extremely useful. Many people have not engaged at all and they are terrified of the approaches from these funds. What will be done? Many of these people could have sustainable arrangements with their mortgage holders.

In Tyrrelstown, which is in my constituency, the loan holder was given authority for tenants who were in long-term tenancies, who were working and who could afford the rent but could not afford to buy their properties to be put out on the street. There has to be a response to that.

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