Cathal BarryThe Government is misleading the public by conveying the impression that the country has entered economic recovery, a senior figure in the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP) has warned.
Tom MacSweeney, SVP national vice-president, said that coalition parties Fine Gael and Labour have recently “conveyed the impression that the country has entered recovery and that the era of austerity is over.
“There appears at times to be a lack of understanding that people just do not have enough money to live on,” he said, “and that imposing new charges on households, such as for the life-essential of water, coupled with increasing costs for energy and rising food prices, will continue to impose suffering on many people.
“This is not the view which the Government likes to hear, nor is it welcome that this society takes issue with policies which impose extra demands and more hardship on those least able to cope.”
Government ministers, officials and supportive media commentators were among those included in Mr MacSweeney’s critique, which he outlined in the autumn edition of The SVP Bulletin.
Noting that the SVP would welcome an end to austerity as a result of economic recovery, Mr MacSweeney warned that “there was not the general view of conferences, the parish-based units, of the Society throughout Ireland.
“Members still report instances of severe deprivation, lack of money, shortage of necessities of life, worries about maintaining a ‘roof over our heads’ as many families have told SVP visitation volunteers,” he said. “There is a major homeless problem and unemployment remains a huge issue,” he added.