Increasing poverty is not the way to economic prosperity

THE past few years have been difficult for the 9,500 volunteers of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, but much worse for the many thousands people who have had to seek our assistance.

So it’s very clear that following the budget and the introduction of the four-year plan things will be even worse.

We can say that with absolute certainty because in 2008, the SVP spent more than €53 million and this increased to €66m in 2009. More worryingly since January, calls for assistance to the society have increased by an average of 35% throughout the country and higher in urban areas like Cork, up over 50%, and Dublin, up over 40%. So even before the budget, we estimate that we will have spent more than €70m this year, a lot of money for a voluntary organisation.