Wealth gap here is widening st vincent de paul

The gap between the haves and have-nots is widening in Mullingar and the rest of Westmeath, according to a leading figure in the local St Vincent de Paul.

The Mullingar area Conference of the organisation reported a slight reduction in the demand for hampers in the run-up to Christmas – down from around 450 in 2013 to just over 400 in 2014. However area branch president John Burke told the Westmeath Examiner that overall, 2014 was still one of the busiest years for them locally and that for those struggling to make ends meet things are getting harder, despite reports of an upturn in the economy.

“Society is splitting a bit. There is a poor half of society,” he said. Over the last 12 months, Mr Burke says that St Vincent de Paul noticed an increase in requests for help from single mothers who have little family support and residents in the estates that were built in Mullingar and nearby towns during the Celtic Tiger years, many of who are new to the area. The local conference also noted an increase in requests from people struggling to keep up with rising rents.

“Our visitation conference would have been experiencing a lot of demand during the autumn, one thing that would have been down before Christmas was the demand for fuel vouchers,” said Mr Burke. “A lot of our time is directing people to services that are out there that they don’t know how to access.”

Despite the high demands being placed on his organisation, Mr Burke says that they are able to cope thanks to the generosity of people.

“We have got huge support. Apart from Christmas and the church gate collections, which take place every month, we have got great help from schools and businesses who raised funds.”