Hopelessness becoming ‘entrenched’ in society, warns charity

There is an “entrenched level of hopelessness and suffering” emerging in Irish society, a joint Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

The claim was made by the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul as the charity delivered its pre-budget submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection.

“The situation has gotten to a critical point in terms of the issues facing families and communities,” said John-Mark McCafferty, the society’s head of social justice and policy. “Clearly the Government needs to balance the books over the medium-term, but given the level of need – the level of suffering – that our volunteers and services are seeing on a daily basis, we have no option but to say no to further austerity.”

Last resort
The society's social policy development officer Caroline Fahey said the Department of Social Welfare's community welfare officers have been referring people to them and pointed out this should only occur as "an absolute last resort". "There has been a tightening up of the flexibility a community welfare officer used to have," she said. "It is the case that in some instances they are referring people to us and similarly we would refer some people to them."

Mr McCafferty identified the safeguarding of a living income “in and out of work” as a first priority in the budget. He said this would mean the protection of the adult social welfare rate and the family income supplement.

The second priority area he highlighted was the elimination of child poverty and the development of child wellbeing. To achieve this he said child income supports, as well as supports at school and pre-school level, would need protection.