Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I am familiar with the service. I was involved in setting it up with the then Minister, Frances Fitzgerald, when I was in the Department of Social Protection and she was in the Department of Justice. It is a very good service. It has probably been wound back in recent years because of the falling number of mortgage arrears, but the Deputy makes a valid point that with interest rates rising we may see an increase in the number of people in arrears. I will definitely talk to my colleagues in the Government about it and see if we can have an examination done not only of further resources but also of the valid point the Deputy makes, that the people providing these services need to have some sort of job security.

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