In the past hour I came away from a meeting of the committee on social protection and rural affairs. There was a considerable, interesting discussion on Citizens Information and Money Advice and Budgeting services. One of the things that struck me was 20% of people cannot get access to those services. There are 89 centres nationally and about 140 information officers. That equates to about 1.5 staff officers per centre. The people who are especially affected are those with literacy and digital difficulties and other vulnerable groups who rely on a face-to-face intervention or a meeting. The plea to us on the committee was about staffing. That was the issue, and staffing is funding. What would more staffing do? It would increase face-to-face delivery-----

Sentiment score: -0.01