Many years ago, a former Minister, Michael Woods, engaged with an iconic member of the credit union movement, Brendan Roche of the Lough Credit Union in Cork. Out of this evolved the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS. Essentially, that credit union, with the then Department of Social Welfare, put together a financial proposal and vehicle to allow people in difficult financial circumstances to emerge from those circumstances and not be dependent on moneylenders. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is this Christmas again commenting on the role and impact of moneylenders, whose charges are exorbitant. It seems that the Government is being lethargic in its broader initiatives on social protection and working with the credit union movement proactively to ensure credit unions have far greater coverage than they currently have and to allow people to circumvent moneylenders as a means of credit, particularly during the Christmas period. There are many areas across our cities where families will be under enormous pressure, will borrow a lot before Christmas and, come February, will face huge difficulties. I pick this up all over, and something needs to be done proactively with the credit union movement to replace these exorbitant rates charged by moneylenders.

This is a very important issue, and I share the Deputy's concern that people in some families turn to moneylenders at this time of year in order to pay for Christmas and then find themselves in the spring having to pay back massive loans, much greater sums than the money they borrowed because of the high interest rates charged. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has a programme with the credit unions. It is called the It Makes Sense loan programme.

No-----

I launched it when I was Minister for Social Protection. When last I checked, about 100 credit unions around the country were offering the loan-----

About 3,000 loans were given out.

-----but it was difficult to get some credit unions to sign up.

For example, Drogheda does not have any.

I will certainly remind the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, of the matter and we will be proactive in encouraging credit unions to take part in the scheme. It is important to point out in addition that the Christmas bonus is being paid last week and this week.

For the first time in a very long time it is being paid at 100% of the weekly payment. I hope that will help hundreds of thousands of people to afford the Christmas bills. As the Deputies know, that was abolished by the Fianna Fáil Party and Deputy Micheál Martin when last in government.