Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

At this stage in our development, I would have thought that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul should be out of business. Its philosophy is to put itself out of business when people no longer need its services. The society has said it will spend half its budget this year on ensuring that people have sufficient heat and will not die of hypothermia. If people cannot heat very humble homes in this day and age, where are we going? There are families who are worried about the arrival of the next bill. I refer not only to families which depend on social welfare.

See this speech in context