Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak. Given the times in which we find ourselves, this is a very useful debate. There is no doubt we live in a global economy where the issue of debt is affecting nations and large institutions and we know that within our own society the level of personal debt is at an historic high. The value of the service provided by the money advice and budgeting service is one we must acknowledge and work towards collectively enhancing. I welcome the intention of the Minister's opening statement in providing such an acknowledgement and giving some indication as to how MABS will progress in these difficult times.

We should also acknowledge that while MABS has become an established statutory service, it finds its roots in a voluntary initiative, the Lough credit union in Cork and the work of the late Mr. Brendan Roche in establishing a special accounts service in a local credit union, which provided a template for MABS throughout the country. At a time of national and international difficulty, we should also acknowledge the work of individuals such as this and look forward to encouraging the type of social entrepreneurism which we need now more than at any other time.

The establishment of that initiative was born of something the Minister also referred to, namely, the prevalence at the time of money lenders and the extortionate rate of interest they charged. This has been ameliorated through the work of the late Mr. Seamus Brennan and subsequent legislation but still exists as a pernicious threat in many societies, and may become a more open threat as we face difficult economic times.

Despite this, as the Minister has indicated, the work of MABS has diversified as it has become a statutory service. On those grounds, we should use this debate to discuss the lack of social responsibility in the established financial institutions that the State had a right to think would behave far more responsibly than they have. One of the reasons we have an historically high level of personal debt is the ethically corrupt practices we have seen in our financial institutions, which encouraged people to take easy credit for purposes that did not have an immediate economic benefit for those who took it, the communities they lived in or nationally. It was easy credit to fund a consumer binge on non-essentials. If there is anything an economy should be directed from in the future, that is the type of lesson we need to take. As we seek to restructure the work of the financial institutions and the economy they seek to service, they are the points the Government and the political system in general needs to get across. What has happened cannot happen again.

I hope one of the future roles of MABS will be to point out when we are heading into these dangerous waters again. To be fair, those in the service did that, and were not listened to effectively in the recent past. MABS should be given particular functions, if not powers, that would highlight the risks of easy credit being given and, where possible, to communicate with other regulatory agencies in the State to stop it. The role of MABS and the goodwill it has built up as a service will enable it to do that in the future.

Other contributions have discussed how MABS can be best administered. MABS is not an organisation; it is a service. It is right to question how that service can be most effectively delivered. We have complementary organisations and structures that can be looked at in terms of delivering that service. The Minister and the Department are looking constantly at how that might best be done. I look forward to seeing how the role of MABS can be enhanced as a service delivery within other institutions that are citizen-directed.

This debate gives us the opportunity to give thanks for the existence of MABS, to congratulate it on the work it is doing and wish it well for the difficult times ahead. If we did not have an organisation like MABS, we could not invent it in the times we find ourselves in. The work and voluntary initiatives of individuals and organisations helped bring this about. I look forward to decisions that are likely to be made in the near future which will help MABS.

I would also like to be associated with the comments made about the late Séamus Brennan. When I was a Member of the Dáil, I had the dubious privilege of shadowing him. There was an analogy made about another politician to the effect that it was like playing handball against a haystack. Séamus Brennan was a similar type of politician as he engaged regularly with other Members of both Houses and took on board suggestions from all quarters. That informed much of the social welfare legislation we have seen in place over recent years, and it is a good base for the current Minister to build on. I look forward to hearing the Minister's and the Department's suggestions in the times ahead that will make use of the asset that is MABS.