Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are all aware of the work of the Society of St. Vincent De Paul. My experience is that it has become far more difficult and bureaucratic to get the necessary assistance from community welfare officers. In the old days, people could go in, make a case and they could give those people cash. Now, people fill out forms and do a means test. The officers cogitate about it and then come back, even for a simple request like going to a hospital appointment that is 60 miles away. The person may have to get a taxi because there is no other way in or out and he cannot take the public bus.

Am I right in thinking that one of the major draws on the funds of the organisation at the moment is the fact that it is undertaking work that was being done by community welfare officers ten years ago? This work is now taken as routine. It has become a matter now of going to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul because the community welfare officer service has been centralised and taken out of rural areas. We used to have local community welfare officers. They knew the people and knew the quirks. The work does not fit into neat boxes of criteria and so on. I have noticed that some people can live comfortably on meagre resources and some people never have a dime in their pockets. That is simply human nature.

Mr. McCafferty might clarify a second point. My memory is that the Department with responsibility for community affairs used to give the society €1 million at Christmas and used to give Protestant Aid a smaller sum – it might have got more per head. Does the society still get that money? Has the amount increased? This was a síntiús given at Christmas time by the Department. In particular, if the organisation is carrying a burden that the State used to carry, the State should carry it again now. In other words, the State has become so systematic that it pushes on to the organisation the work it had been doing. Therefore, it should give the organisation the money to do it. I am keen to hear a comment on that point because it is a major issue in my area.