I thank the committee for asking me to appear before it today regarding my proposed appointment as chair of the CIB. As the committee already has my statement in full, I will probably not read all of it, as I assume that members can read. However, I will refer to its more important aspects.
I am honoured to be asked to chair the board. It is an organisation with which I have had a long association. I will tell members a little bit about my background before discussing the issues that I believe are upcoming for the board. I was born and reared in a farming family in County Sligo, where I went through primary and secondary education. I have a degree in economics and history from UCD and I qualified as a barrister in the King's Inns. I have been fortunate to have had a varied career, which has included working for a wide range of organisations like the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the European Commission office in Ireland, the Law Reform Commission, the National Council on Ageing and Older People, NCAOP, the Human Rights Commission and a number of referendum commissions. I have had a long association with the CIB and its predecessors in title. I have written its monthly information magazine, Relate, for many years and have also written a number of its other publications and numerous items on its information databases. In recent years, I have been a member of two commissions of investigation and have heard appeals in the residential institutions redress scheme. I have also been involved in various public policy issues and was recently the chair of the advisory committee on tax and social welfare, in which capacity I appeared before this committee, as some members may recall.
However, I am not the important aspect. The CIB is, and members know what it does. It is the statutory body that supports the provision of information, advice, including money and budgeting advice, and advocacy services. It provides some of its services directly through information websites, etc., but it also provides money to a number of organisations, which is one of the issues I wish to address briefly.
A significant element of the board's services are delivered by a large number of small organisations, for example, citizens information services and the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS. The citizens information services are staffed by more than 1,100 volunteers in addition to paid staff. As members are aware, the relationship between State bodies and the voluntary organisations that they fund has come under scrutiny in recent years. We all recognise the significant contribution that the voluntary sector can make, as it is particularly knowledgeable on the needs of local communities and is frequently more flexible in its responses than State organisations. At the same time, though, everyone wants to see good value for money. This puts pressure on small voluntary organisations. Some of them believe that the pressure on them is unduly burdensome, but it is important that all recipients of public funds be able to show that they are using them effectively.
It is also important that services delivered through the voluntary sector are of the highest quality. The voluntary organisations funded by the CIB recognise the need to ensure high-quality services, but they are operating in an increasingly complex environment and sometimes the size of the organisation does not allow it to deliver the quality of service that is required. The CIB has been involved in trying to get more effective governance arrangements in place to facilitate better service delivery. This work will continue, as ensuring the happy continuance of the voluntary sector while providing high-quality services and good value for money will pose one of the major issues for the organisation in the coming years.
Since I have set out the functions of the CIB in my submission, I will not go through them all, but I will discuss the issues arising from them. The CIB was first established in the 1970s under a different name, the National Social Service Council, to set up community information centres. Information remains a core activity for the board. Accurate, independent, integrated and clearly written information is important for everyone. The means of transmitting information has changed dramatically in recent times and the rules governing entitlements to various schemes and services have become more complex. As members will be aware, there has been a significant increase in the quantity of legislation in the past 30 years, certainly since the 1960s and 1970s, and distilling all of that and making it meaningful for people so that they can properly exercise their rights and entitlements is a major operation that is becoming more complex. However, it is an essential one and not just so that citizens can make best use of the available services, but so that they can be fully active participants in society.
As the economy improves, it is important that they have the right information to make the best choices for them in any given set of circumstances.
In the presentation, I give the statistics on those dealing with our services. There were 16 million hits on the citizensinformation.ie website in 2014. It is important that the website be kept up-to-date and remain user-friendly.
The second issue I want to address is the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, with which the committee will be familiar. MABS is in 53 locations throughout the country and it provides a service on both secured and unsecured debts. The MABS service tries to address the entirety of clients' financial circumstances and deal with all the issues, including the social ones, that arise in order that they are in a position to return to financial health and be active participants in society. In recent times, this has proved to be a major challenge.
As the committee will no doubt be aware, the Government has recently agreed a number of new measures to support mortgage holders who are in arrears, including a greater role for MABS. Additional services to provide assistance in identifying the best options, completing financial statements and considering proposed solutions are to be introduced by MABS offices on a phased basis. This will ensure that borrowers have access to information on the range of supports and options available, advice on the ones most suited to their needs, and assistance, where necessary, in pursuing such options. In my presentation, I state that the development of this new service will require extra funding. I am pleased to report that the extra funding was allocated yesterday. The roll-out of that service will start immediately. A project manager will be appointed shortly. It is hoped that by the end of July the service will be running in a number of parts of the country.
We also must bear in mind that many users of MABS services need the service, not because they have mortgage payment problems but because of other indebtedness. MABS was originally established to address the problems caused by moneylenders charging excessive rates of interest. It is rather surprising to discover that there are still 360,000 customers of moneylenders in Ireland. This points to the absence of a more appropriate source of credit, such as micro-loans, for those who need small borrowings. Recent changes in credit union regulation and amalgamation aimed at curbing reckless lending of high-value loans mean that credit unions are not providing the sort of small loans service they were originally set up to provide and that are needed by those we are talking about. The Citizens Information Board supports the micro-loan concept and is in discussions with the Departments of Social Protection and Finance on the establishment of a micro-loan scheme for citizens who have difficulty accessing credit. Such people need credit, for example, when a domestic appliance, such as a cooker or washing machine, breaks down. They can afford to repay. They may not be able to afford to repay the moneylender because of the excessive rates of interests. There is no way they have the sum required, perhaps €300 or €400, to buy the appliance in the first place, but if they can get a micro-loan at a reasonable rate of interest, they will be able to repay it. It is important to recognise they can repay it. We are not suggesting making loans to those who not able to repay.
Another area in which the Citizens Information Board is involved is advocacy services. The board provides advocacy services to a small number of those with disabilities. As I said, the service is small at present and clearly does not reach the number who need such a service. The Citizens Information Act 2007 provides for the establishment of a statutory personal advocacy service, the relevant provisions of which have not been implemented. There is a need for statutory arrangements, but the statutory arrangements contained in that Act probably are not the most appropriate for the current environment because advocacy services are needed in the context of the new assisted decision-making legislation and also to a significant degree in the context of patients' rights in the health services. There is a need for a co-ordinated approach to advocacy services that would cover those with disabilities, those with assisted decision-making problems and patients within the health services who need help in establishing their rights. Such a co-ordinated approach would require new legislation. That is one of the areas that the Citizens Information Board, together with relevant Departments, will examine in the near future.
The final area I want mention is the social policy remit of the Citizens Information Board. Through its information services, the CIB becomes aware of problems, issues and anomalies in the delivery of services. It is in a position to document and analyse these and, in some cases, make recommendations for improvements. This is an important conduit for citizens’ problems to be brought to the attention of Government with a view to influencing policy decisions. Over the years, many of the issues raised in social policy reports have been addressed. Of course, not all have been, but this is nevertheless a valuable public policy vehicle. The timing of such submissions, for instance, at the budget preparation stage, is also important. The CIB also provides responses to Government consultations on various policy issues. These are all based on the board's experience in dealing with those who have problems with a particular issue that is being addressed.
I hope I have shown the committee that I have the necessary experience and qualifications to lead the Citizens Information Board over the next five years. I look forward to the challenges ahead. I am happy to take any questions the committee may have.
