Charities see huge jump in families on the breadline

By Declan Tierney

The number of cash strapped County Galway families, who have turned to the St. Vincent de Paul for assistance in the run up to Christmas, has more than doubled compared to this time last year.

And in a startling revelation, it has been learned that many of those families who had helped out St. Vincent de Paul in the past have now come with ‘cap in hand’ looking for much needed help this year.It is estimated that the VdeP have come to the assistance of almost 4,000 families across Galway city and county this Christmas which is more than double the number they helped out last Christmas.

A combination of the new unemployed, home owners in negative equity and those who cannot survive on social welfare payments have all been turning up at the St. Vincent de Paul door.

“I simply don’t know where the people are coming from this year. The number of people who are in dire need of our help is unprecedented and we have never had to deal with such a volume in the past”, admitted Colm Noonan, Administrator with the VdeP in Galway, who paid tribute to the large number of volunteers who had helped the organisation this year.

It is also an indication of the increased demands on their services that some of their offices that had closed in the past have now been reopened because of the poverty that has affected nearly ever parish of County Galway over the past three years.

The St. Vincent de Paul office in Galway city, which also serves those in a dire situation around Connemara and even the Aran Islands, distributed around 700 hampers of food this Christmas while they provided other assistance to more than 1,600 people in the region throughout the festive season.

On the east side of the county, the charity came to the assistance of an even higher number of families in need and this resulted in a lot more people having to be looked after with much less resources.Colm Noonan said that their contributions were down by €120,000 in Galway city alone while the numbers seeking their help had risen by between 55% and 60%.

“In all my years involved with this organisation, I have never seen such poverty in our community”, Mr. Noonan added.

The huge demands on St. Vincent de Paul come at a time when the Government is introducing a household charge, septic tank registration fee while families’ incomes were further hit in the recent Budget.

“People that helped us out in the past and fundraised for us are now the people we are helping because their fortunes have changed so much.

“The number of new people that have come to us looking for help is quite staggering”, Colm Noonan added.

Other charities too have admitted they are finding it increasingly difficult to deliver their normal services through a combination of reduced contributions and an increase in the demands from those they assist.

Charities that depend on the majority of their funding through voluntary contributions have admitted that they are struggling to deliver the services they provide – and concede that the ‘big fund raising events’ have become a thing of the past.

At the same time, demands on their services had increased significantly and that had resulted in wage cuts and general cutbacks within the organisation but without essential staff having to be let go.