Ms Caroline Fahy:

I thank the committee for the invitation. Our 11,000 members in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are seeing at first hand the impact of the economic crisis and the austerity programme that has followed. Calls for help to our regional offices have increased by more than 100% since 2009 and we are spending more money than ever helping individuals and families in need. We are spending more than €80 million per annum, which is up from €52 million in 2008. In 2012, we spent more than €22 million on food and cash assistance and more than €11 million helping households with their energy costs. Help with fuel and energy costs is up by almost 200% since 2008, demonstrating the impact of austerity and deprivation on households across the country.

The reason for the increase in our spend is the impact of austerity has been most strongly felt by people with the lowest income and least resources and the cumulative impact of the cuts to incomes and services over the past number of years has resulted in a huge negative impact on people's ability to cope. The increased cost of living is eroding the real value of incomes whether they are from social welfare or employment. Our colleagues in the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice have found that the costs of a minimum essential standard of living, which is based on needs, not wants, increased by more than 3% between 2008 and 2013, which is much faster than the rate of general inflation.

The cost of energy heating for the home has increased by an average of 25% since 2009 but supports such as the fuel allowance have been reduced. The largest group requesting help from us is families with children, in particularly those heading by a person parenting on his or her own. Research carried out by our colleagues in Social Justice Ireland has found that a one-parent family that is out of work has experienced the largest reduction in income of any group in the country. The next worst affected group is a couple with earnings of €200,000 a year.

There has been a great deal of discussion about Ireland's recovery and we welcome the progress that has been made but our members are not seeing that reality in people's pockets and lives. People continue to struggle on a daily basis to afford basics such as food, fuel and education costs. This year we have titled our pre-budget submission, Planning for the Right Kind of Recovery. The right kind of recovery would bring us towards a nation where caring for each other, our children, older people and people with disabilities is valued and supported, where individuals, families and communities can participate fully in society and where an adequately resourced State and a strong economy, employment and business environment supports the type of society in which we wish to live.

We are asking Government to announce a budget for 2015 that tackles poverty, social exclusion and unemployment, provides supports to people in jobless households to make the move from welfare into employment and invests in our children and young people. We set out 33 priorities in our submission based on the needs of those we assist. These are things we have to ask for because of what we are seeing on the ground. If these policy recommendations were implemented, it would put us on the road towards the right kind of recovery.

Our key priority in tackling poverty and social exclusion is to ensure social welfare payments, tied income supports and secondary benefits are adjusted to reflect the increased cost of living. We must also ensure any changes to income tax, the Universal Social Charge or other taxes benefit those on low incomes rather than those on higher incomes.

We would like the changes to the one-parent family payment reversed to tackle unemployment and provide opportunities for jobless households.