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01/12/2008
Tough Year Ahead, Says SVP
A leading Irish charity, the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) has forecast that 2009 would be the most difficult year it has faced for a generation as it announced record spending last year.
Unveiling its biggest-ever annual appeal in Dublin, SVP President Mairéad Bushnell said the society was seeing "a growing sense of fear and hopelessness" amid the recession.
She said calls for assistance were up 37% in Dublin, 36% in Cork and 30% in the mid-west region.
"We've never seen anything like the number of calls for help we're getting now. We'll have to spend over €50 million this year to help people in need," Ms Bushnell said.
"In some areas, two in every three calls are coming from families with children, and more than one in four calls are from people who never had to use our services before."
The Society announced a record spending in 2007 of more than € 46.2 million, an increase of 9.2% on 2006, with €890,000 spent every week that year.
It said costs related to food, energy and education were posing the biggest challenges to people.
For 2007, food supplied by the society was worth over €5.3 million, up 11.3% on the previous year; fuel costs paid were €3.4m; and education costs paid were €3.3 million, up by over a fifth.
The society said it was "deeply concerned" as the recent Budget "clearly failed to protect the most vulnerable in our community and will actually undermine the modest quality of life they currently have".
Ms Bushnell said: "In the present turmoil, it is the duty of Government to protect the most vulnerable in our communities - and SVP is calling for decisive action to do that."
(BMcC/KMcA)
Unveiling its biggest-ever annual appeal in Dublin, SVP President Mairéad Bushnell said the society was seeing "a growing sense of fear and hopelessness" amid the recession.
She said calls for assistance were up 37% in Dublin, 36% in Cork and 30% in the mid-west region.
"We've never seen anything like the number of calls for help we're getting now. We'll have to spend over €50 million this year to help people in need," Ms Bushnell said.
"In some areas, two in every three calls are coming from families with children, and more than one in four calls are from people who never had to use our services before."
The Society announced a record spending in 2007 of more than € 46.2 million, an increase of 9.2% on 2006, with €890,000 spent every week that year.
It said costs related to food, energy and education were posing the biggest challenges to people.
For 2007, food supplied by the society was worth over €5.3 million, up 11.3% on the previous year; fuel costs paid were €3.4m; and education costs paid were €3.3 million, up by over a fifth.
The society said it was "deeply concerned" as the recent Budget "clearly failed to protect the most vulnerable in our community and will actually undermine the modest quality of life they currently have".
Ms Bushnell said: "In the present turmoil, it is the duty of Government to protect the most vulnerable in our communities - and SVP is calling for decisive action to do that."
(BMcC/KMcA)
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