It is a pleasure, as always, to be invited here. We are grateful for the opportunity.
I will begin by congratulating both Deputies Ring and Catherine Byrne on their promotion. I look forward to working with them over the next period of time.
The committee has a copy of the presentation we sent in. If the committee does not mind, I want to just go through the headline issues to start with and then go into it in greater detail if the committee should have questions on any particular aspects of it.
I will start off with something the members do not have in front of them but of which, given that many of the members have contact with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, they will be probably aware. Last year we spent €52 million, that is, approximately €1 million a week. That was divided fairly equally. Approximately half our budget goes to providing services, by which I mean our 1,000 social housing units, our 11 holiday homes, the 30 family resource centres, the eight clubs we run, many other such activities and 135 shops. The remainder is spent on direct support into families. I will give some of the headline numbers for that as it is important in some of the issues that will arise later on. Last year, we spent more than €6 million buying food for people. We spent nearly €4 million on energy bills and €4 million on education. As the committee can imagine, this time of year there are many calls for to help with school books, and so on. It will get worse again in September. In general cash assistance, we gave €9 million. That is a rough breakdown. Obviously, there were other bits and pieces that we have not included, but those are the headline issues.
One of the trends that we have seen over the past year of which the members will be aware is the significant increase in the number of calls for help throughout the country: in Cork, calls are up more than 50%; in the mid-west, 20%; in Galway city, 46%; and in the Dublin area, more than 37%. There has been a huge increase in calls for help to the society. It is difficult to get figures for smaller regions, but they are comparable from what we can gather, from talking to our colleagues in those regions.
We gather the information by a number of routes. There are calls coming into the offices by groups that we have throughout the country with the rather strange name, From the Ground Up. These are members who act as a sort of intelligence unit and provide us with information. We also are informed from surveys we conduct with our regional and national presidents. Ms Fahey will speak more about this later on because she is the one who collects all of these data.
Of interest to the committee will be the profile of the people we are now seeing. Probably the first point to make is that one might imagine that we are getting an incredible number of extra calls from people who are being affected by the recession. We are getting some such calls, but not quite as many as we had anticipated. Some of it is because of the forbearance of the banks, the fact that they had been told to pull in their horns a little. We are seeing an increase, throughout the country in every single parish in every constituency. Sadly, the greatest call for help is still coming from those reliant on State benefits, whether it be pension or social welfare. Probably the saddest aspect is to see people whom we would have helped many years ago, who were managing to get by and who may have found a small job, now coming back to us, or those who were on welfare whom we were helping, who then moved away because they could manage on welfare because of the increases that occurred, and who are now falling back. It is sad that this is happening.
There is an increase in the calls from foreign nationals in Ireland. Anywhere between 15% and 20% of the calls now are coming from people who would have been here working during the good times and now for whatever reason find that they are in difficulty, and they are coming to us for help. Sadly, approximately a quarter of our hostel accommodation is now being taken up by persons who are foreign nationals, which is something we would not have seen previously.
I mentioned the kind of calls that are coming up, and Ms Fahey will speak about that and how we go about the help that we provide. In terms of the issues that are new to us, however, one of the big problems is that the level of panic and fear among many of those coming to us now is palpable. These are people who suddenly find that they are in very difficult circumstances, who previously would have supported the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and who now find they must rely on it. They are caught between panic and shame. They feel they should not be going to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, that they are not the kind of person the society would help. Of course, that is not true but that is their attitude. There is the difficulty that this forces, not just upon those persons but upon the members of the society.
The pressure on our members has increased to such a degree — our branch in Cork comes to mind in this regard — that we have been obliged to organise sessions at which support can be given to them. Our members deal with people experiencing high levels of panic, financial difficulty and in some cases, unfortunately, those who are obliged to deal with the aftermath of their friends or loved ones committing suicide. Massive problems exist not only for the families we help but among our members. This is the case throughout the entire country.
How are we coping with this? As members can imagine, we are spending more money. We are working very closely with the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS, to try to ensure that those who seek our help have at least a pathway through the financial system. One of the major issues is the impact of the most recent budget, particularly in the context of withdrawal of the Christmas bonus and the problems to which this gave rise. The budget had a major effect on many of the families to which we provide assistance. Many of these families found that their incomes have been dramatically reduced. That is the reason those on social welfare with whom we were not dealing before are now seeking our help.
The vast majority of those seeking our help are families with children. They generally seek assistance that they might buy food and fuel. The vast majority are single-parent families. There is a real problem in this regard. Sadly, EU statistics indicate that lone parents with children are by far the most likely to fall into difficulty. That is what is happening.
The Houses recently passed the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2010, which contains a number of provisions relating to lone parents. We have been doing some work in respect of this legislation and have made it known to the Minister, at various meetings, that we are concerned about the implications of the legislation, particularly if the support required for lone parents is not put in place. We welcome the fact that the Bill pushed back the date after which this will be introduced to 2016. This will give the Minister and the relevant sections of the various Departments an opportunity to ensure that there will be a seamless approach with regard to helping single parents move from welfare to work. That is something we would support. What we do not want to see happen — we are concerned that it will come to pass — is that such individuals will simply shift from one welfare payment to another. Unless supports are put in place for them, that will be the inevitable consequence.
On a positive note, the amount of money we collect through fund-raising increased during the past year. Compared with the experience of some other charities, that is a welcome development. There has also been an increase of 25% in the number of people donating via our website, which we launched 12 months ago. It appears, thankfully, that members of the public who have always been so generous — as have the members of this committee and, in particular, the Chairman, who has supported various events we have held — are continuing to give. They are providing us with much needed support. We received great support during the recent floods and this was particularly helpful in allowing us to assist people in paying their energy bills.
A number of surveys relating to poverty indicators have been published in recent times. We have being trying to bring the message in this regard to the committee and various Ministers for several years. These surveys indicate in stark terms that approximately 25% of households in Ireland are living on €20,000 per year or less and that more than 50% of households are living on incomes of less than €40,000 per year. That is a sad, cold statistic, particularly when one considers the vast amounts of money that have been invested in supporting various institutions.
Deflation may have helped to reduce the cost of food but when one considers the statistics provided by EUROSTAT last week, it is obvious that Irish food prices are still the highest in Europe. A small percentage reduction is just that. It is a small fraction of a decrease on a very high cost.
One of the things about which we are extremely concerned is that it appears, for various reasons, that in the forthcoming budget there are going to be further cutbacks of one kind or another or that there will be increases in the costs incurred by families. We all understand why this is likely to happen. We are concerned that the impact of such cutbacks or cost increases will be to further increase the numbers of people seeking help from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. We do not want it to be the case that even more people will be shifted from work into welfare and then on to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. We are concerned about the human tragedies we encounter, particularly those relating to people who are in extremely different and difficult circumstances and who do not have the coping skills which seasoned welfare recipients possess.
