More than one in five people are caught in the poverty trap, with littlehope of a way out. How do they manage and what difference will Budget 2004 make to their lives, asks Rosita Boland.
Eamon, aged 53, is one of the new poor of Ireland. He is married with two children aged 15 and 21, both of whom are in full-time education and live at home, in Dublin 12. Until 1999, Eamon was self-employed, earning approximately £30,000 (€38,092) a year. His job, as a specialised technician in the health sector, involved using potentially harmful materials.
Eamon contracted CCAD (chronic constricted airways disease), which worsened over a period of years. He worked less and less and, four years ago, he was told by doctors that he had to give up work entirely, due to the long-term damage to his health. Eamon is now on disability allowance, and will never be able to work in his field again.
"When you're working for yourself, you can't sue yourself," he observes wryly.
Prior to this week's Budget, Eamon's family's income broke down as follows. Eamon's disability allowance for himself and his dependant wife was €207.60. Both children qualified for child dependant payments of €16.80 a week, as they are both in full-time education. Including the younger child's monthly child benefit payment of €125.60, the basic weekly income for this family of four was €272.60.
This works out at roughly one-third of what their income had been prior to 1999. Before Eamon had to stop working entirely, the plan was that his wife would start working outside the home, but she suffered a heart attack and that option is now out of the question. She has recovered but will be on medication for the rest of her life. Eamon is in no doubt that the strain caused by their reduced income contributed to her heart attack.
"When you change your finances to that extent, it creates a lot of stress," he says.
By the time Eamon stopped working for good, the small amount of family savings had mostly been spent on supplementing the income for the previous eight years, during which he was working less. In 1999, the family had savings of £1,000 (€1,270), which is now long gone. Of their current €272.60 a week, €53 goes on a mortgage, €130 on groceries and the remaining €89.60 on utility bills, clothes, and all other ongoing expenses.
"Our standard of living has gone through the floor. Holidays abroad are gone, weekends away in Ireland are gone, dinners out are gone, going to the pub is gone, and the car is gone," Eamon says. The car is what they all miss most; come the good weather, they can no longer head away even for a day's outing.
"Everything is hard. Even a simple thing like doing the garden - I spend a lot of time in the garden now - can cost money to upkeep. At the back of my mind all the time is the worry that we won't have the money to meet incoming bills. Without Vincent de Paul, we'd have been really sunk. All the time, it's a general thing of trying to survive and, yes, it makes me depressed."
He gave up social drinking when he stopped working. "I don't even know what the price of a pint is these days!" he says. What he misses most from his former life are his friends. "I miss the social life; going off with friends for a couple of pints and a game of snooker. I did see some friends for a while, but much less now. I have to keep giving excuses as to why I can't go out, so they stopped asking."
Eamon is not hopeful about the situation changing for the better, but he is grateful the family bought their house long before the present property boom. "Everything is more expensive now," he says. "Basic foodstuffs are going up on a continuous basis. That's where you're always caught. Alcohol and cigarettes going up I don't care about but you need to eat. I'm always looking for bargains in groceries - two for the price of one, things like that."
Post-Budget, the family is better off by €18.10 a week; an increase of €16.60 in the disability allowance paid to himself and his wife, and an additional €6 a month children's allowance.
"It's more than I expected, but I still feel McCreevy didn't tax the people who could afford to pay more," Eamon says. "And why is child benefit, which went up this year, not means-tested? I'm sure it's nice to get it, but I'm certain that not everybody who gets it really needs it. Whereas with the children's dependant allowance, which didn't increase this year or last year, money goes to families who really do need it."
Eamon is articulate and well abreast of current affairs. A daily newspaper and a subscription to cable television are among his few luxuries. He is quietly scathing about the politicians.
"Bertie Ahern is out of touch. He doesn't move in our walks of life. These people think they know what it's like to be us, but they don't know, because they haven't experienced it."
Michelle is 27, and a single mother of two children, aged 7 and 8. Living in Ballymun, Dublin, she left secondary school when she turned 13, because she was being bullied. Nobody from the educational authorities ever came looking for her, although a concerned teacher did call once to her home. She never went back to school. She stayed home instead, and helped her mother, a single parent, look after six younger brothers and sisters.
Michelle has never had a job, has no qualifications, and has never received any employment training: she is in a classic poverty trap. After the birth of her children, she was given a council flat, and a year ago, a new council house. Her personal weekly allowance is €124.80. As a single parent, she also receives €19.30 a week in child dependent allowance for each of her two children, in addition to the standard monthly payment of child benefit for them, which is €251.20. Including the monthly child benefit payments, this works out as €226.20 a week for the three of them.
"The only time I ever have a different shopping list is on child benefit payments day. I'll buy chocolate bars for the kids that day." Each week she pays council rent of €12.50; €12.70 for a bag of coal; €20 on ESB meter tokens; €20 for a gas heater swipe card; €9 on an ESB arrears bill. The remainder, some €150, goes on groceries, clothes and other necessities. "Clothes are a nightmare. I buy our clothes in charity shops, but I try to do it when the kids are in school. They don't like me going in there; they say, 'No, Mammy, why can't we go to a different shop?' Now they're getting older, they want what everyone else has. They don't like being different."
Michelle only comes into the city centre once a year, at Christmas, and goes to Henry Street and Mary Street. For the rest of the year, she shops in Ballymun and Finglas villages. Michelle has never been outside Dublin county, let alone outside Ireland. Their new house has a big back garden, which the children keep telling her they love. The only places her children have been to, outside of Ballymun and Finglas, are the zoo and the beach at Portmarnock; both outings arranged by the Vincent de Paul.
"Vincent de Paul give me a shopping voucher of €20 a fortnight for groceries. And they found me a communion dress for my daughter last year. I don't know where I'd be without them."
She first became aware of St Vincent de Paul when a neighbour visited her flat years ago, and saw that she was using an old mattress as a couch in her living room, as she didn't have any furniture. The neighbour suggested she go to St Vincent de Paul: they arrived within the week with a second-hand suite of furniture.
The only money Michelle spends on herself is cigarettes. She doesn't drink. The most she has ever spent on herself at one time was €50, some years ago, for clothes at Christmas.
"There's a good lot of people out there like me, and a lot much worse off, because they have more children. Everything is expensive - basic groceries, like breakfast cereals and frozen chips." She has put off thinking about Christmas presents for her children. The seven year old wants a PlayStation and the eight year old wants a mobile phone.
"Her friend at school is getting one. My seven year old wanted a PlayStation last year and he wants it again now this year, when he didn't get it before."
She has never had a bank account and never saves anything from her allowances. "I wouldn't know what it's like to save - I've tried a number of times but it always goes on something else." Moneylenders visit her house at least once a month. She hasn't borrowed money yet, but she knows what the rates are: interest is €25 in every €100, to be paid back over 26 weeks.
Post-Budget, Michelle is better off by €22 a week: an extra €10 on her personal allowance, and €12 in monthly child benefit payments. She had been hoping for an increase in the annual Back to School allowance, currently €80 for under-12s. There was no increase in this.
What does she think of Bertie Ahern?
"I'd love to have his kind of life! If I had his life, I'd buy myself a plant for my house and a decent pair of shoes."
Names have been changed to protect privacy