The official opening of the Lombard Street Branch of MABS was performed by Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Seamus Brennan TD on 27th of September 2005.

The first question you might ask is: what is MABS?

MABS is a company set up to help people with financial difficulties. They negotiate for people, empower them to speak to creditors and offer guidance. They deal with mortgages, renting property, cars and credit cards.

They also offer community education, giving talks on managing money, on insurance and borrowing. There was a time when money lending was the only means of achieving financial stability, but this led to increased debts and poverty in the long run.

The service is free, independent and confidential and is based on practical budget-based measures. It ensures people are in receipt of all entitlements, in particular, social welfare and taxation.
The idea came from a report in 1992 from the Combat Poverty Agency.

The funding comes from the Department of Social Affairs. It also introduces an idea called ‘Newspoor’ which deals with social welfare recipients whose expenses exceed their income. It originated from the Ringsend Action Project (RAP). There is another facility included in MABS, that is Comhairle which offers training to staff and management committee members.

At the opening there were people from many organizations and in particular Minister Seamus Brennan and Ruairi Quinn TD. Lorraine Waters, the co-ordinator, introduced everybody and spoke of the company’s expansion to Lombard Street and the success of MABS in general. She also gave thanks to the Credit Unions and St Vincent De Paul for their great work.

The chairman, Jim Prew, thanked the various organizations who helped them, particularly Leonard Burke in the Cork branch and Liam Edwards who pioneered MABS to its 65 branches today. Jim also thanked all politicians for their cross party support and said that teamwork was the key to their success.

Seamus Brennan gave a tribute to Jim and Lorraine and said that MABS serves 30,000 people. He praised it for its professionalism and confidentiality in dealing with incidents of poverty. He talked of the difference to the lives of ordinary people that MABS makes in dealing with many issues.
Information on the work of MABS is available on www.mabs.ie

Pictured above, from left: Lorraine Waters, co-ordinator of MABS with Seamus Brennan TD, Madeline Hayden and Debbie O’Grady.