Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is leaving the Chamber but I listened to his remarks carefully. My only diagnosis is that he does not get it. He does not get the nature of the MABS or the Citizens Information service, CIS. MABS started in The Lough in Cork, a small urban community. The CIS owes its roots to Muintir na Tíre in Tipperary, a rural community and Deputy Jackie Cahill's county. Both services provide invaluable trust-led services from staff whose interest in their cases is phenomenal and second to none. The views of those staff on this issue are being completely ignored. The board, which the Minister has spoken of, has completely disregarded the views of the staff who deliver the services and who have built that level of trust.

In my case, the staff are the sounding board for dealing with common clients, either of MABS or the Citizens Information service. We share a lot of clients, no matter what party we are from, because we trust each other. MABS is trusted to provide locally-based mortgage arrears figures and to provide budgeting advice depending on local circumstances. It is trusted to provide a locally-based response in the event of a major closure in a community. It can do that because it understands the locality.

This is a major change. It will take the local away from the boards. It will tell board members who have given service, mostly unpaid, that they can become members of an advisory board but that a regional board will take over, yet there will be no change in the ethos of the organisation. Surely, the Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Seán Kyne, as a regional Deputy, gets it. As a person from Galway, he knows that somebody from Galway will not represent the views of a person from County Mayo.

It is not broken beyond repair. It can be fixed. Deputy Jackie Collins spoke about the service issues to which the Minister referred. They can be synchronised, in consultation with the staff.

The Government needs to go back to basics, pull back from this step and stand up for people in rural Ireland for once. Members of the Government should cop on to themselves and listen to the views of the House once and for all.

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