Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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97. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the criteria used by the Citizens Information Board to select a design team to recommend new management structures for Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS, and Citizens Information Services, CIS; the reason the existing voluntary companies, or their representative bodies who have developed and managed these services locally are not consulted; the cost of the inconclusive consultants' report commissioned by CIB on proposed new structures; and the reason it is necessary to abandon the local management structures when these have proven to have worked so well for so many years at no cost to the Exchequer and be replaced by regional or national structures which will be less cost effective and will be removed from the local knowledge base so vital to the success of these services. [5439/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Citizens Information Board (CIB) is the statutory body responsible for supporting the provision of information, advice (including money and budgeting advice service) and advocacy services on a wide range of public and social services. The Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008 provided for the transfer of responsibility for the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) to the Citizens Information Board (CIB), under the aegis of the Department of Social Protection.

CIB delivers on its remit to provide services to the public by supporting a network of delivery partners which includes 42 local Citizens Information Services (CIS) and 51 local Money Advice and Budgeting Services (MABS).

In 2015, the CIB will receive a budget allocation of €46m from the Department of Social Protection, of which €17.94m will be allocated to MABS.

Among the strategic priorities set out in CIB’s Strategic Plan 2012-2015, is the development and implementation of an integrated service delivery model that puts the citizen at the centre.

In 2014, following a public procurement exercise, CIB commissioned a feasibility study to identify options for organisational integration by its delivery partners. The aim was to develop clearer and more effective pathways to the provision of information, advice and advocacy services and thereby achieve better outcomes for citizens, and make optimum use of the state resources available to CIB. The work was carried out by a company called Pathfinder, at a cost of €78,000 excluding VAT, and was overseen by a Steering Group, comprising national representatives from Citizens Information Services staff and Boards, MABS staff and Boards and staff from the Citizens Information Board.

The work carried out by Pathfinder included extensive and comprehensive consultation with all stakeholders, including representatives of CIB’s delivery partner services (CIS and MABS) at local level. The study, which presents a number of options, was considered by the Board of CIB, which agreed to the establishment of a Design Group tasked with outlining and recommending possible new structural models. The Design Group includes members of the voluntary boards and staff of a number of the CIS and MABS, together with representation from CIB management. CIB has invited submissions from the representative of Boards and staff of CIS and MABS, to inform the deliberations of the Design Group. This engagement with stakeholders will continue while the work of the Design Group is underway, before reporting back to the Board of CIB in due course.