I am sure the Taoiseach will agree that the dedicated mortgage advisers employed by the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, do a tremendous job at very little cost to the taxpayer, but is he aware that they have no security of tenure? Their contract is simply renewed annually and the practice is to tell them only at the last moment whether or not their contract will be renewed. Obviously, that is very unsatisfactory for the people doing that job. Is the Taoiseach aware also that the budget for this service was cut substantially this year? In my area the cut in real terms came to about 25%. There are 46,000 mortgage arrears cases in the country at present and interest rates are rising. Will the Taoiseach commit to put this service on a proper footing for the people who practise with these unfortunate people who are in arrears and, also, that a proper budget will be allocated towards that? This is vital and critical work and likely to become more so.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. I am familiar with the service. I was involved in setting it up with the then Minister, Frances Fitzgerald, when I was in the Department of Social Protection and she was in the Department of Justice. It is a very good service. It has probably been wound back in recent years because of the falling number of mortgage arrears, but the Deputy makes a valid point that with interest rates rising we may see an increase in the number of people in arrears. I will definitely talk to my colleagues in the Government about it and see if we can have an examination done not only of further resources but also of the valid point the Deputy makes, that the people providing these services need to have some sort of job security.