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Presbyterian Mutual Society

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. We will have to wait for the later part of the debate to find out why the report has not been forthcoming. However, I want to develop that matter a little further and I will touch on it again in my remarks. Many of the people I have been speaking about put their life savings into the PMS because they were assured that the society was safe and honest. They were also assured that it would help the furtherance of God's work and, of course, that they would get a return on their money. Comforting expressions of concern and sympathy will not suffice in dealing with this crisis; we must actively engage with the Government to reach a solution that will allow pensioners, families and ordinary citizens to have access to their hard-earned money. The crisis is impacting not only on families, but on many Presbyterian Church congregations throughout Northern Ireland, who had money saved to build new church halls and so on. The Presbyterian Church plays a vital role in civic society by organising after-school clubs, old age pensioner groups, youth groups and so on. Many of those groups must now endure financial hardship. Only yesterday, the administrator of the PMS announced that people who have more than £20,000 in the society will get a payout of 12p for every pound they had in the PMS. That is the first payout since the PMS went into administration in November 2008, and although it will provide a crumb of comfort for those who have more than £20,000 in the society, it will do absolutely nothing to comfort those who have less than £20,000. Many of those people are hurting most.