‘The gap between income and expenditure is growing’

The number of local parents seeking help from St Vincent de Paul to help them cope with rising back to school costs has risen significantly this year, writes Rodney Farry.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, the organisation’s area president Michael Donohoe said that since the start of August, there has been a marked increase in the number of calls for help from worried mothers and fathers struggling amid the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.

Local volunteers estimate that in the greater Mullingar area, the number of parents seeking help has risen by about 10 per cent this summer.

“The gap between income and expenditure for people on low incomes is growing. Anyone on fixed social welfare incomes is feeling the pressure the most.

“They are stressed and they are relieved when they do talk to St Vincent de Paul,” Mr Donohoe says.

The rise in the cost of living over the last year has meant that many low income households have been unable to put away money to help cover back to school costs.

“That’s why we have been getting extra requests to help with back to school. Even though people get grants to help with back to school costs, it’s not sufficient to cover them, especially for parents with children entering secondary school,” added Mr Donohoe, who said that St Vincent de Paul also provide assistance to local third level students and last year helped around 30 young people.

With energy, fuel and electricity prices set to go up between 30 and 40 percent in the coming months, Mr Donohoe predicts that the number of people seeking help from the charity will continue to rise.

“Heating oil and coal are going to go up. We help an awful lot of people in the winter time as well. We have suppliers who can cope with any demand we put their way.

“We would expect that there will be an increase because there has already been an increase in the number of requests for help with energy bills.

“Some people have only got electricity for energy. Some of them turn off their heat in the winter time because they can’t afford it.

“Rent is another one that we get requests for now. It’s across the board. Food [requests] are all the time because sometimes food is the last thing people buy – as they need electricity.”

Mr Donohoe says that St Vincent de Paul would not be able to help as many people at a local level if it wasn’t for the ongoing support from the people of Mullingar and the surrounding area.

“We are still well supported, even though our shops were closed [during the pandemic] and there were no church gate collections for nearly two years. There was no drop in donations from local people.

“We used to do door to door collections at Christmas before Covid. We couldn’t do it then, but we still held our figure for Mullingar. It shows how people responded and remembered.”