Vol. 555 No. 1
392 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the committees, boards, companies or other bodies under the auspices of her Department which were established since 1997 to date otherwise than pursuant to statute or statutory instruments; if there are proposals to give the body in question a statutory basis; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17834/02]
395 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the committees, boards, companies or other bodies under the auspices of her Department which were established since 1997 to date pursuant to statutory instrument; the particulars of the statutory instrument in each case; if there are proposals to have the body in question given a basis in statute as opposed to statutory instrument; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17883/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 392 and 395 together.
The Family Support Agency Act, 2001, provided for the establishment of the family support agency to bring together the main programmes and pro-family services developed by the Government since 1997.
The new agency will be overseen by a board comprising members with experience and expertise in fields such as family mediation, the family community resource programme, counselling, research, family law and parenting. The designate members of the board were announced in June and they had their first meeting in July. It is my intention to establish the board on a formal statutory basis shortly.
The Money Advice and Budgeting Service is designed to target families and individuals identified as having problems with debt and moneylending and support projects throughout the State. Each project is incorporated as a company limited by guarantee and run by a management committee drawn from local voluntary and community groups, credit union representatives and local statutory agencies.
