John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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256. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will confirm the structure of the Money Advice and Budgeting Service and the governance arrangements relative to the Department oversight; the funding provided to the service in each of the past five years; if service level agreements are in place; the number of companies or individual boards within the service; the number of board members on each board; the cost of each board relative to administration and expenses each year for the past five years; the role of the Citizens Information Board relative to the service and the Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15392/15]

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. The legislative provisions governing CIB are contained in the Comhairle Act, 2000, the Citizens Information Act, 2007 and the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2011.

While oversight of the CIB is exercised by the Department of Social Protection (DSP) in line with the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies, the CIB is also accountable to the Houses of the Oireachtas and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The CIB’s annual report is subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General and is then laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas. A senior official of DSP sits on the Board of CIB and there is regular liaison between officials of DSP and the CIB executive.

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). Each of these 93 independent companies in the network has a separate voluntary Board of Management. Each of these Boards has an average of over 9 members resulting in a governance structure of over 800 people. The number of board members in the 51 local MABS companies amounts to over 400 and a breakdown by company is included in the following table.

The Citizens Information Board is responsible for ensuring that all appropriate governance arrangements are in place for expenditure of allocated public funds. Service level agreements are in place with each delivery partner company and cover standard items such as service delivery, governance, financial controls, HR practices, reporting, evaluation and monitoring. The use of service level agreements enables the CIB to ensure that excellent service and best value is achieved across the wide range of services it provides.

In 2015, the CIB has been allocated a budget of €46 million of which some €17.9 million is allocated to the MABS network of companies. The annual allocation of State funds from CIB to the MABS network of companies over the last five years was as follows –

2011 €18.4m; 2012 €18.3m; 2013 €19.0m; 2014 €18.6m; and 2015 €17.9m.

The following table shows the funding allocation to the 51 local MABS local companies over the past five years, the number of Board members per company (as registered with audited accounts submitted to Companies Registration Office for 2013), the cost of each Board, including professional fees andthe % cost of the Boards relative to overall administrative costs.