DIFFICULT ECONOMIC circumstances cannot be used as an excuse for reducing support for the most vulnerable in the forthcoming budget, the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) has said.
At the launch of its pre-budget submission yesterday, the society said a failure to increase welfare benefits and other supports would have profound consequences for hundreds of thousands of people living on the edge of poverty.
"These are people who have benefited least from the recent economic boom, but they are being disproportionately hit by dramatic increases in the cost of food and fuel," said John Monaghan, the society's vice- president.
The group says the extent of hardship is reflected by a 40 per cent increase in the number of calls for help in the Dublin area compared to the same period last year.
The SVP, which is Ireland's largest voluntary organisation on social action, is on course to spend a record €50 million this year in assisting families to meet basic necessities such as food, education and heating.
Among the main recommendations in its pre-budget submission are:
• Increase welfare and pension rates by at least €15 a week;
• Increase the number qualifying for a full medical card on income grounds to 26 per cent of the population, or an extra 140,000 cards;
• Increase the qualified child allowance to €28 and €32 a week for under and over-12s respectively;
• Improve the take-up and processing of the family income supplement;
• Increase the fuel allowance from €18 to €30 a week and extend it by four weeks; for heating oil make two payments of €510 each in October and January;
• Ensuring the Government meets its social housing commitments in order to provide accommodation for the 43,000 households stuck on waiting lists.
The society's president, Mairéad Bushnell, said budget decisions must take account of people likely to be hit hardest by any cost-saving measures.
Meanwhile, the HSE has been accused of diverting €83 million allocated for the disability sector to fund hospital overruns and other services.
The Disability Federation of Ireland (DFI) says it is demanding the return of the funds.
Delivering his pre-budget submission yesterday, DFI chief executive John Dolan described the HSE's behaviour as "unacceptable".
He said: "We have no intention of continuing to be a banker of last resort to the HSE because it cannot live within its allocation."
The DFI's pre-budget submission calls on the Government to commit €50 million to develop disability services in addition to multi-annual funding for 2009 and €5 million to fund capacity building among voluntary disability organisations.
In a statement, the HSE said that although it was allocated a fixed budget in each financial year, it had to cover the full cost of certain initiatives and schemes where expenditure was not limited.
"Unavoidably, in 2007 a portion of the funding provided for additional developments for people with disabilities was required to cover overruns in other expenditure areas and in particular community drug repayment schemes and allowances.
"Some of this funding was also used to cover essential increased expenditure in existing disability services," it said.