THE country’s leading charities are warning they are close to breaking point trying to provide for thousands of vulnerable people in the lead up to Christmas, as demands for food, clothing and help to heat homes surge. With the budget looming and more cuts expected, Focus Ireland, Barnardos and the ISPCC report a drop in donations of up to 20% and a massive rise in people seeking their services.
National president of SVP Mairead Bushnell said its volunteers were daily facing people who were crumbling under large debts and indespair trying to make ends meet. She warned they did not have the expertise to help people in such dire psychological distress and accused the Government of being out of touch with the struggles low and middle income families were facing.
"Does anyone in Government know or understand the plight of people we are meeting everyday, does anyone care?
"Every new proposal or suggestion to solve our economic problems targets low and middle income earners. While at the same time money can be found to bail out the banks and pay huge salaries and bonuses," Ms Bushnell told a SVP conference over the weekend.
"We put food on the table, heat in the home and help children remain in school. But we are volunteers with neither the skills nor capacity to solve all of the problems of those in huge debt or in psychological distress brought on by the loss of their jobs or the shortage of money."
Focus Ireland’s director of fundraising Mark Mellett said it is struggling to keep up with the demand on services and called on the State to live up to its promise to protect the most vulnerable.
The housing and homeless charity worked with 5,500 people in 2008, and in the first six months of this year had already worked with more than 4,000 people.
Director of services of the ISPCC Caroline O’Sullivan said its shortfall was putting "severe strain" on its ability to continue to provide services across the country.
"Families nationwide are under increasing pressure and as a result, more are seeking support," she said. "This, coupled with fundraising in the current economic climate, has placed a strain on theISPCC’s ongoing ability to provide a service for all children who need it."
Figures from the Department of Social and Family Affairs reveal almost 200,000 people are in receipt of weekly emergency welfare payments to help with mortgage payments and basic day-to-day needs such as food, clothing and heat.
Director of marketing and fundraising with Barnardos Ruth Guy said if the budget deficit continued into next year it would have to look at curtailing or cutting projects as "a worst-case scenario".
Head of SVP Professor John Monaghan said there were grave concerns whether or not the charity’s main source of income – its annual appeal at the end of November – would be enough.
"This is what carries us through the year, but people who used to contribute are now the ones looking for help."
Lise Alford of the 3Ts suicide prevention charity said cuts across the board were putting a real strain on frontline services.
"There has never been a greater need than now. All suicide support services are reporting a 20%-25% increase in calls. Instead of cutting funding, it needs to sustain funding going forward."
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