Moneylenders and poverty - Break this link

ONE of the noble but Sisyphean tasks the heroic among us undertake is breaking the cycle of poverty. Various agencies are dedicated to this high ideal, one determined to celebrate our humanity by sharing life-changing opportunity with all.

One of those agencies, one with a long and wonderful record in this country, is the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP).

Yesterday, SVP president Kieran Stafford described a situation that must be recognised as an indictment of us all. He said the organisation helped 130,000 households last year and damning though that is, the fact that the vast majority of them had some link with a moneylender is shocking.

Moneylenders are one of the reasons many families are in dire straits and cannot escape the hard circumstances fate has imposed on them. The exorbitant rates some charge are at best exploitative.

If we really want to break the grip of transgenerational poverty we have to find a way to sideline moneylenders.