John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 78: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if his Department has plans to mount an information and education campaign, through social welfare offices, on the dangers of excessive personal debt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11812/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has overall responsibility for the money advice and budgeting service, MABS, which provides assistance to people who are over indebted. A total of €13.6 million in funding has been allocated to MABS in 2005. The service is targeted at those who are on low income or are in receipt of social welfare payments and also those with poor literacy and numeracy skills. There are 52 MABS companies located in 65 offices throughout the country.

The money advice and budgeting service has a close and ongoing involvement with my Department at local level. Representatives of the Department are on the boards of management of MABS companies. Membership is also drawn from statutory and voluntary bodies such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, credit unions, citizens information centres and the community welfare service. These representatives in turn raise awareness of issues around over indebtedness in their parent bodies.

The money advice and budgeting service is advertised in many post offices and credit unions as well as in local health centres. New posters with local contact details are about to be circulated to all MABS offices. These posters will also be displayed in all social welfare offices and health centres as well as other appropriate locations. A new company MABS National Development Limited, MABSndl, was established in 2004 to support, promote and develop the MABS. The company has recruited a national development team comprising a social policy-communications officer, a community education officer and three casework technical support officers.

The company is currently working on the development of a national strategy in community education, which will be implemented by the 52 MABS companies. This strategy will seek to empower individuals and communities in developing the skills necessary to deal with debt cases as they arise. The MABS development company is also devising a strategy to assist the MABS local services to improve further the take up of the money advice and budgeting service by those on low income. Recent initiatives to inform the target group of the MABS include media interviews, co-operation with the One Parent Exchange Network, OPEN, the National Adult literacy Agency, the Courts Service information section, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Age Action and hospital social workers.

The Department ensures that MABS information and contact details are included in all relevant social welfare publications and information material produced by the Department.

Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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The Central Bank produced statistics earlier this year which showed that across the general population personal debt is now 120% of disposable income. We can only presume, in the absence of proper statistics from the Minister's Department that it is at a higher level among social welfare recipients. Given that MABS is under resourced and does not have a widespread network, does the Minister believe his Department should play a greater role in ensuring that personal debt is avoided to the greatest extent possible among social welfare recipients? What additional measures does the Minister intend to put in place given that the promised legislation on MABS appears to have been pushed lower on the list of legislation?

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I accept the Deputy's point. For the present, however, it is best to work through the MABS. A total of €64 million has been provided to the service since 1992. The figure for this year is €13.62 million. The first half of 2004 saw an increase in the numbers calling to MABS offices, when approximately 8,500 clients used the service during that period. There was an increase from 9,000 in 2001 to 12,000 in 2002, while an average of 1,700 persons per month visit the website.