Mabs employs around 110 money advisers, plus support staff. MABS officers will help people with multiple debts to draw up a budget plan that's "reasonable and realistic", according to co-ordinator Mr Liam Edwards.

The Money Advice & Budgeting Service (MABS), a debt-counselling organisation funded by the Department of Social, Coummunity and Family Affairs, will celebrate its 10th anniversary later this month.

Free, confidential and independently run, MABS was set up in 1992 to assist heavily indebted families and has since expanded from just five pilot projects to 53 offices around the State, with at least one in every county. The service's annual budget has increased from €300,000 to €10 million.

Money advisers will also negotiate with creditors in some cases. "Creditors see it as very positive when someone approaches a money adviser," he says.

MABS runs a Special Account Scheme for people in substantial debt and don't feel their monthly income will be enough to get them out of the red. The person makes an agreed regular payment into a special credit union account and the credit union then pays out a pre-arranged amount to creditors - moneylenders, lending institutions, electricity and gas suppliers - on a monthly basis.

MABS also operates a voluntary debt-settlement arrangement, Fresh Start, on a pilot basis in conjunction with the Irish Bankers' Federation. The scheme is designed to save consumers the trauma of their creditors taking legal action to recover outstanding debts. A repayment programme is negotiated on a case-by-case basis, with the family home protected at all times.

Contact numbers and addresses for MABS offices are listed in the phone book and at www.mabs.ie.