SVP's advice on austerity agenda

The services offered by the St Vincent de Paul (SVP) in Meath have never been in more demand than this year, as can be seen from the fact that the nationwide charity is opening three new shops in the county this year. Growing demands for its help saw the SVP open a new outlet in Athboy at the weekend, and a second new shop will open in Navan next month. A further facility is slated for Bettystown. The new openings bring the number of SVP shops in Meath to 11 and represents a shift in fundraising towards retail and away from declining traditional revenue streams such as church gate collections. Such is the current demand for SVP services in the county that 10 new conferences (or branches) have been established throughout Meath in the past four years, and call centre activity has doubled. Local SVP volunteers talk of the summer once being a quiet time when they would only have to deal with emergency situations. Now, however, help from the society is in high demand all year round, acting as a short-term safety net for those who fall outside the care of the welfare state or who need emergency financial support. Given that we are in our fourth year of a major economic recession that has seen unemployment grow to over 14 per cent of the workforce and industries like construction decimated, it is no surprise that those in financial difficulty and saddled with enormous debt, are turning to organisations such as the St Vincent de Paul. Even those who once would never have imagined they would ever have had to turn to charity to help, are now faced with the grim reality that it is the only way they can survive for now. The SVP is one of the high-profile volunteer organisations at the coalface of Irish society right now and is in a unique position to comment on the social justice issues thrown up by the austerity being imposed on ordinary families by the government at the behest of the country's lenders. In a strongly worded commentary this week, the society asks whether Ireland has fallen so low in terms of social justice that investors in failed banks are being placed at a higher priority than the poor, the disadvantaged, the sick and the elderly in Ireland. In pursuing its role of seeking social justice and equality of all citizens, the SVP says it has a duty to question the government's commitment to social justice and asks whether Ireland has fallen to a level where its people appear secondary to financiers. "Facing into the autumn brings the reality of austerity imposed on the people and its effects on many families who, increasingly, are finding it difficult to make ends meet, are fearful about the future and the threat of more taxation at a time when they do not have enough money, when their incomes do not meet outgoings and families are suffering from more worry and stress as a result," according to the society. Assessing the government's performance in protecting the most vulnerable, it says that because of the choices the government is making to comply with the demands of Ireland's international funders, the EU/ECB/IMF troika, it is clear the coalition cannot meet reasonable expectations to protect the most vulnerable and are unlikely to do so for the foreseeable future. The SVP has previously criticised those lecturing from well-placed positions when justifying austerity for suggesting that they understand the problems of ordinary people. It adds that that when politicians, economists and commentators say they understand the problems of ordinary people, they really don't. It describes as an obscenity in Irish life the fact that many in leading influential positions, on high levels of pay, can simply tell the less fortunate they must suffer more. The suffering that has been visited on ordinary families to pay for the economic damage caused by the greed of others will be a constant theme over the next couple of months in the run-up to December's budget, where further tax increases and cuts are inevitable. On top of the cuts which already taken place and what is to come, one of the country's top economic think-tanks, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, said even more austerity would be needed in the years ahead if the government wants to be confident of meeting its targets. While academics and economists may well argue that heaping additional austerity on the population would put Ireland's public finances on a more sustainable footing, one only has to look at the political instability and social unrest that has gripped Greece and is now threatening Spain and Portugal when austerity is ramped up to even tougher levels. The social cohesion that has helped bailout countries stick the course so far can very easily come apart if too much austerity is demanded.