Michael Brennan (Progressive Democrats)

The Senator's amendment refers to the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS. MABS was established in 1992 with just five local projects. It now comprises 52 companies, employing 229 members of staff, and the service is now "almost nationwide", as a great phrase goes. The latest information available from the 52 companies of MABS shows that 12,000 people were availing of the service, which shows it is popular.

MABS does not provide direct financial assistance to its customers as this is not its business. Instead, it provides advice on practical budgets and how to manage budgets. It helps people to move permanently from dependence on moneylenders, which was the original idea behind the service, and to access alternative sources of low-cost credit. It is a hands-on service which offers more than just advice. Its staff make phone calls and arrangements, and reach settlements with banks, financial institutions, moneylenders and so on. It is an excellent service which has my 100% support, as well as that of Senators.

The service was allocated €13.62 million for next year. I want to put this figure firmly on the record as there was confusion in the other House that, somehow, it was getting just €700,000 for that period. The budget for next year is €13.62 million, a substantial increase of €2.22 million on the 2004 allocation. For 2005 I specifically decided to award an additional €700,000, which was the amount saved last year due to the curtailment of the supplement.

My predecessor acted from the best motives in seeking to curtail the spending of this €700,000 last year because the evidence was clear that this amount was going virtually directly from the Department into financial institutions, which were literally grabbing the funding because of the way the Department made it available. Its non-availability did not affect the 12,000 clients of MABS; it affected the institutions which no longer received it. Therefore, I decided to restore this funding of €700,000, but in a different way. In other words, I am making €700,000 available to the companies of MABS for them to help to develop more innovative ways of tackling indebtedness. I have great confidence that MABS will focus this special funding to help its clients. The service knows how to help its clients better than I do and I know it will spend the money wisely.

MABS provides a good service which has wide support in the Houses of the Oireachtas. It has a solid budget and has helped many thousands of people to extract themselves from debt and make a fresh start.