Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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113. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason he and the Citizens Information Board are proceeding with the restructuring programme of MABS and the CIS despite the results of the Dáil Éireann motion and before the publication of the report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26326/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection has, this afternoon, published its report on the Proposed Restructuring of the Money Advice and Budgeting Services and the Citizens Information Services and I thank the Committee for its engagement with this matter.

In February, the Board of Citizens Information Board (CIB) decided the new governance model for local service delivery companies would change from 93 individual company boards to sixteen regional boards, comprising eight Citizens Information Services (CIS) and 8 Money Advice and Budgeting Services (MABS).

CIB has clearly stated that the new governance arrangements will result in no job losses for those working in local services, no diminution of existing services, no closures of service delivery points, and no disruption to services for those who use them. The Board of CIB is committed to supporting the long term delivery of services at a local level and there may be opportunities to extend or improve existing service delivery over time. However, in so doing CIB is obliged to ensure that it and its service delivery partners comply with standards as set out in the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies and ensure that Comptroller and Auditor General requirements are met. This is the context in which the Board has made its decision to reorganise the governance arrangements of local CIS and MABS companies. I accept the bona fides of the Board in its decision.

Before making its final decision, CIB had engaged in an extensive and comprehensive consultation process, involving service delivery companies and representative organisations and groups. This process included representative groups having audiences with the CIB Board itself.

In recent months, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection held hearings and received submissions from the various stakeholders. Cognisant of the various concerns expressed to the Committee, CIB undertook a series of regional consultations with stakeholders throughout the month of May, to discuss and examine key aspects of implementing the new sixteen board model. These sessions were attended by 127 representatives of local company Boards and 223 representatives of management, staff and volunteers of local services. Each session was chaired by an independent facilitator. All who attended had an opportunity to raise any concerns they had about service delivery under the new model. CIB reports that these engagements were well received and there was considerable support for the change.

My Department understands that CIB intends to host further consultations over the summer period, on key areas such as the role of volunteers, the delivery of consistent high quality services countrywide and the preservation of the fundamentally valuable local community focus and support ethos within the new model. CIB will consider these findings in the development of its Volunteer Strategy.

CIB has established an Implementation Group, with cross-sectoral representation, to assist with the governance reorganisation. CIB has also committed to carry out a full Cost Benefit Analysis on the sixteen company model.

I am satisfied that CIB is making genuine efforts to allay the concerns of staff, boards and volunteers and is actively seeking to find ways to best embed the historically strong community ethos in the new governance structure for CIS and MABS services.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.