Hi Mark.

I think Money Advisers have been involved in the development process?

It will be interesting to see whether the public take to it.

Hi TDA

It will be more interesting to see if the public have the option to take to it or not.

As far as I am aware ( and hopefully I'm proved wrong) there has been no input from any qualified Insolvency Practitioners. To produce a tool of this nature, takes input from all sides.

Mark

I've seen this in action, Mark. The AIB held a series of DAS stakeholder meetings and tagged a sneak peek at the new triage tool on to the end of it. To say it went down like a lead balloon is an understatement.

It seems to be aimed for the use of money advisers, as a way of standardising the advice given to people. As far as I understand it, advisers are being asked to pilot this tool and base their advice-giving around the recommendations it churns out. Essentially it seems like the AIB are suggesting that the money adviser's job can be done more effectively by a computer program - I'm not surprised that the vast majority of money advisers in the room felt insulted.

If anything I think this kind of initiative is likely to end up with people receiving poorer standards of advice. Such programs cannot be sophisticated enough to take into account the nuances of each individual's circumstances - it isn't just some calculation being performed here.

Perhaps more sinister is the last point you make, Mark, about the new tool encouraging people towards DAS. The recommendations that come out are ranked according to suitability - and I have a feeling that DAS will come out top in a great many cases where money advisers might have previously put forward a trust deed as the most suitable option. In fact, in the example they ran through in the session this was exactly what happened.

Don't get me wrong - I am all for people being given all of the suitable options and choosing for themselves, but there seems to be an undisguised effort to push this particular solution above others. Unfortunately it seems to me that the government/AIB's desire to see better results for creditors is leading them to try and crudely manipulate a strong tradition of independent money advice that has always had the indebted individual at the forefront of considerations.

But anyway, it is still only a pilot and I imagine that without the buy-in of the money advice community then this tool will either eventually be scrapped or rarely used anyway.

The DAS is a great tool for some people, but the AiB were not happy with it's uptake when it was introduced in 2004, and have been making changes ever since to improve it. Yes, it has got better, but to suggest that it is the answer to everyone's problem is just ridiculous; and yes most cases will end up with the AiB's favourite tool...DAS!! Money Advisers already advise DAS when it is appropriate, as well as the other tools available. As Kevin says, one size does not fit all......especially when it comes to debt.