Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the issue of the regionalisation of MABS and the Citizens Information service, CIS. Like my colleagues, I believe this is the wrong thing to do. There is no one here opposed to reform or achieving efficiencies in various areas, Departments or sectors. That is to be welcomed, providing it gives a better end result to the service users in the community. Regionalising these services will actually move them further away from those who need to access them the most. That is a mistake. In my constituency of Kildare North, there is one MABS office and two CIS offices serving a population of just over 100,000. I would advocate increasing the services and bringing in additional supports to help the people who need help the most. As we all know, a lot of people, both families and individuals, are suffering financial pressure and strain, whether in terms of restructuring mortgage repayments with banks or local authorities or dealing with rent increases by local authorities. Those people need to be able to access the services of MABS which can put forward their case and support them in an independent process. That is why it is so important that the services are available to them. We should be increasing the services in local areas, not removing them and making them more difficult for people to access. Community welfare offices were amalgamated in my constituency and that has not worked for the people on the ground. I ask the Minister to rethink this and not to regionalise the services.

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