SVP requests for assistance in Inishowen almost double compared to this time last year

The number of people seeking assistance from St Vincent de Paul in Buncrana has almost doubled on the same time last year while donations to the organisation in the town have dropped by around 50%.

The voluntary organisation in the town has experienced an uptake in families seeking help since September as families deal with inflation and the rising costs of fuel and electricity with a striking change being the number of people in employment seeking assistance.

Fionán Bradley, chair of the St Oran's St Vincent de Paul conference, which operates in urban Buncrana and one of two conferences in the parish, said the volume of requests for help “genuinely has gone up through the roof” in recent months.

“In eight years in the conference, I have never seen not seen anything like it in terms of the number of people coming forward for help. People that are in full-time work and that always managed previously but it's just their income is not matching their outgoings because the price of everything has gone up, so they are struggling for the first time ever and are coming forward looking for help.”

“It's not people who are coming in income because they are unemployed or they have recently lost their job, it is people that are working full time but by the time they have bills paid they have no disposable income to spend on that wee bit of food or an extra bag of coal or 100 litres of oil. They have no extra to spend and that might be for the first time ever.”

Families with young children have been seeking help but also people with medical conditions have to travel for treatment who've been experiencing hardship due to the increase in the cost of petrol and diesel.

“After the money they have spent on the travelling [to hospital appointments] they have less money to spend on the necessities.

Mr Bradly said that Covid payment supports had helped many families but once those stopped the conference experienced an uptake in queries from help which escalated in the autumn.

“January and February were unusually quiet. From then on there was a gradual increase and then it exploded from the end of September to the start of October and since then it has galloped and been kept at that high base from then on.”

“But for everyone that is coming forward there are ten more that need help but we just don;t know about it.

“I would say to anyone that needs help, please, please come forward.”

The number of food donations “has definitely halved and may even be only a third of what we received this time last year”.

“That's very understandable because there is just less disposable income for the ordinary Joe Soaps and they have less that they can use to extend or give to other people.” He said the group in the past would normally receive three or four phone calls a day to its confidential number but that has risen to “six or seven calls per day”.

Families with less disposable income have been prioritising food but there has been an incredible increase in families getting in touch who need fuel.

“They are eating as opposed to heating. When we go visit them the house is cold and you discover there is no oil or no coal.”

The conference will not know how many people it has helped until mid-January but last Christmas it helped more than 50. “I think it will be 70 or 80 at least this year.”

He said the conference, which has around ten full-time volunteers, held its church gate collection in December. “The overall donations were down the same thing as with the food [donations]. People just have less to give.”

Anyone that needs assistance from St de Paul or who wishes to contribute can contact the North West Region office in Raphoe Phone: 074-9173933.