‘Don’t push them over the edge’ says SVP pre-budget submission
Dublin 3 November 2009…The Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVP), the largest charity in Ireland, is fearful that cuts in the forthcoming budget will push many already vulnerable people over the edge.
In its Pre-Budget Submission, ‘Don’t Push Them Over the Edge’, published today, the SVP says that while it recognizes that the Government must seek expenditure cuts the SVP’s priority is to seek to ensure that the most vulnerable people are protected.
While the Society is not seeking increases in State support it is seeking to protect, or have re-instated, supports in 17 main areas across Social Welfare, Education, Health and Housing.
Among its proposals is that NAMA could be used to tackle the Social Housing waiting list. It says that a social dividend could be gained from a land and housing strategy whereby families in need of accommodation are housed in empty properties taken on by NAMA.
“There is no moral or economic justification for a cut in social welfare or pension payments’ said SVP National Vice-President John Monaghan in outlining the details of the Society’s submission. He also described the proposal to cut Child benefit by at least €30 (20%) per child as both cruel and unfair.
“Ireland is the second most expensive country in Europe for food, deflation has not changed that. In addition the main costs incurred by those on social welfare and on low pay continue to increase; transport costs for example, bus fare are up 12% and train fares 8.7% this year. While interest rates are down the rents for social housing and payments by people on rent supplement have increased in the past year.
And out of 25 OECD countries we have the third highest level of poverty. 16% of our population, that is 800,000 people living below the poverty line”, he said.
Last year the SVP provided €6m on food, €3.8 on education support, €3.8m on helping people with their energy bills and €8.7 on direct financial support.
Calls for assistance to the society have increased by up to 30% in some areas this year and the Society expects that trend to continue into 2010. One in four of calls in the Dublin region were from first time callers to the SVP and the Society is now experiencing more and more agencies, social workers, social welfare staff and MABS staff referring people to it for assistance.
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“The Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVP) and the people it helps are facing an extraordinarily difficult and challenging time as the SVP spends about €1m a week on its services”, said National President Mairead Bushnell.
“All of us are being conditioned to accept a collective guilt over the economic problems and to ignore the human cost to families and individuals. Our experience over the past 12 months in trying to address that human cost of
the cuts already made has been a sobering and difficult one”, she said.
She also said that it was the sincere hope of the SVP that the Government’s rhetoric earlier in the year about protecting the most vulnerable would be matched by its actions in the forthcoming budget.
“The signs of that happening are not good. We don’t see a Government plan to protect the vulnerable and statements about protecting the weakest in society have been reducing in recent months. Competitiveness, credit ratings and consumer confidence has dominated the debate. Marginalised groups such as lone parents, immigrants and those, both unemployed and in low paid work living on the poverty line have been portrayed as somehow contributing to the downturn. They are the people at risk of being most savagely hit in the forthcoming budget.
“It is worth noting that the vast bulk of social welfare budget does not ‘leak’ out of the country. Social Welfare recipients do not have the luxury of investing or saving money, they use it directly in their local economy”, said Ms Bushnell.
She urged the government to avoid decisions that provide short-term financial benefits to the exchequer but have adverse long-term social consequences. “We do not want to look back on this period as one which sows the seeds for future social inequalities. It is an opportunity to demonstrate that Irish society values a socially just, fair and caring society”. she said.
In presenting the details of the SVP Pre-Budget Submission John Monaghan said that while the SVP acknowledges the need for economic stability and supports greater efficiencies in public services, it is those struggling to make ends meet that now face the threat of the proposed cuts with considerable trepidation.
“The government should look to finding its savings or raising additional tax from deepening and broadening the tax base, not through increasing income tax, but by ending expensive tax reliefs; by eliminating wasteful practices and secure better value for money in the delivery of public services; reform of the public sector and examine all Capital projects with a view to only supporting those that create the maximum common good.” he said.
For further information contact: John Monaghan, National Vice-President,
Telephone: 086 8302246
or
Jim Walsh, Media Liaison. Tel: 087 2541700
Summary of SVP Pre-Budget Submission:
Social Welfare
1. No cuts in welfare rates.
2. Protect low-income families from any cuts in Child benefit.
3. Reinstate Christmas Bonus.
4. Maintain Fuel Allowance – compensate for Carbon Tax.
5. Retain Exceptional Needs Payment.
6. Maintain level of Back to School Clothing & Footwear Allowance.
7. Address the plight of Asylum Seekers.
Education
8. Restore book grants.
9. Address the scandalous cost of schoolbooks.
10. No cuts in Special Needs Assistants or language support teachers.
11. Recruit promised NEPS psychologists.
Health
12. Retain existing Medical Card eligibility criteria.
13. No increase in Drug refund, Prescription or A&E.
Housing
14. No cut in Rent Supplement.
15. Honour commitments in the Homeless strategy.
16. Use NAMA to tackle social housing waiting list.
Low Paid
17. No reduction to Minimum Wage.