Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 349: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of MABS units in the Kildare area; the number of staff involved in the working of the units; the number of applications for assistance in each of the past three years; if there is a waiting list for persons seeking support; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39677/06]

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 and need intensive help and advice in coping with their debt problems. There are 53 independent companies nationwide operating the service. The MABS service has been allocated €16.4 million this year to ensure the continued development of the service. In 2006 to date approximately 10,000 new clients have approached the service for advice with debt problems.

There is one MABS company based in Kildare which operates from two locations, Kilcock and Newbridge. It employs 7 staff and in each of the past three years respectively 355, 429 and 479 new customers have approached the service. So far this year, a total of 411 customers have approached the service. There is no waiting list and customers contacting the service are given an appointment to see a money advisor within 10 days.

Last year almost 27,000 people used the MABS throughout the country as compared with almost 18,000 some 4 years earlier. The growth in demand for the service is evidence of the quality of the service provided by the MABS staff. This year I have increased the allocation from my Department to the MABS Service by in excess of twenty percent to assist the MABS in dealing with this increased workload.