Poverty will continue without Government reforms, says SVP

THE injustice of poverty will continue for another quarter of a century unless Government policies are radically reformed, the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) warned yesterday.

Speaking at the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, SVP head of social justice and policy John-Mark McCafferty said that, despite becoming richer in the past decade, Irish society has also become more unequal.

"Of children in the 0-14 age group, 148,000 are in consistent poverty. This means they are in a low-income family and also experience deprivation of basic items on a regular basis," he said.

This year's summer school is focused on Irish society in 2030, and Mr McCafferty said the SVP hopes to see an end to poverty by then.

"We hope this will happen in the shorter rather than the longer term. But by 2030, substantial enhancements and innovations in social policy need to be well established but the planning and the budgeting need to happen now."

He suggested this could be achieved through a combination of improved monetary support for low-income families and individuals, increased access to free universal health services and education and more early childhood care and education. Other requirements include major changes in social housing provision and a lack of exploitation and sufficient supports for migrants.

Mr McCafferty said poverty has become more sustained despite huge increases in personal and household consumption since the early 1990s, with everyday items such as utility bills, healthy food and service costs rising substantially. He said many low wage families are worst affected as they are just above thresholds for medical cards, social housing eligibility, waste charge waivers and other public services, while families face scandalous hidden education costs.

Social and Family Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan, who addresses the MacGill Summer School this morning, revealed yesterday that the number of people needing help from the free independent Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) has more than doubled in the past four years. Almost one-third of the 680,000 queries to the service last year related to social welfare issues, 13% were about employment and 9% related to health services.

"The evidence from the MABS experience is that the nature of debt is varied and can range from small loans to difficulties with utility bills such as electricity, gas and telephone bills, credit card debt, mortgage or rent arrears and debt around important life events such as first communions, confirmations, weddings and bereavements," Mr Brennan said.