Mr. John Mark McCafferty:

I thank the committee for giving the Society of St. Vincent de Paul the opportunity to input into the budget discussions. We made a submission to the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform a couple of weeks ago and the message that we conveyed then will be similar to the one that we convey today, based on the views of our 10,000 members and on the services they provide across the State. We spent €40 million in direct assistance to households in 2011, of which €10 million was for energy costs, between €3 million and €4 million on education costs and most of the remainder was spent on overall household costs, including food costs. That paints a picture of poverty not only among people who have come to us over a long period, but people who have come to us for the first time in recent years. There is an entrenched level of hopelessness and suffering, which is borne out by the volunteers who work for us. We assisted people through the boom and we continue to assist people, but the intensity in which we do so has been exacerbated during the past five to six years in this climate of austerity.

As Members well know, the timescale of this year's budget is different but so, too, is our approach. Like many non-governmental organisations, NGOs, our normal practice was to produce a pre-budget submission, launch it in Buswells and have the usual following in attendance. However, that approach has become tired and the issue facing households, families and individuals have become so critical that-----