For some reason this was not done, MABS was the obvious agency to deal with those unable to fund it themselves.
Completely agree with you on this, and why was it not done? To protect the incomes of those who have access to government. You only have to look at all the legal and financial fees that are being paid out by the Irish taxpayer for all the Nama/insolvency/bankruptcy work.
But the PIP options seems to be backfiring spectacularly, people do not actually have the money to hire them. And I'm just waiting to see how much of a quango/fiasco the ISI turns out to be, and look at that lovely new mess Irish Water. There is no end of good money to throw at all of these, but none to actually help distressed borrowers. Instead we have 'disparate' groups such as the phoenix project, New beginnings, Radolupous Allen Trust......
Speaking of Mabs, we have poster Guineapig going for a DRN via Mabs, and that too is a shambles. She has been given incorrect information by Mabs/ISI and messed around by a bank etc, and sent hither and thither for documents more than once.