An estimated 600,000 people were struggling to make ends meet in the run-up to Christmas and thousands more would fall into the clutches of moneylenders, the House was told by Willie Penrose, Labour's social welfare spokesman.
"That is a frightening statistic," Mr Penrose said, and it was disgraceful that this should be happening in the most affluent economic climate and circumstances ever.
Mr Penrose said that even licensed moneylenders were charging up to 200 per cent, and for the unlicensed it was a case of whatever they could extract.
He urged Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan to restore the money, advice and budgeting service which had been abolished by his predecessor as part of the "savage 16" cuts.
Mr Penrose continued: "Will he agree that it is important to send out a clear message for people to keep away from moneylenders and [ to] warn that many people with no money to spend, who feel pressurised to approach them, should try to get some help through different sources?"
Mr Brennan said that last year's Budget had contained a special allocation of €700,000, which was exactly the amount that had been removed earlier in the cuts referred to by Mr Penrose.
"One must realise that, since 1996, taxpayer spending on this area has doubled. It has moved from €5.7 billion up to €12.2 billion in just a few years. Child benefit, for example, has increased by 65 per cent over the same period," Mr Brennan said.
Fine Gael spokesman David Stanton asked the Minister if he was saying that the Society of St Vincent de Paul was mistaken and its view was wrong. Was he saying that there was no hardship because of the increase in fuel costs and that there was no problem at all.
Mr Brennan said there was obviously an issue to be addressed. "The Society of St Vincent de Paul does fantastic work on behalf of all of us. Its members are out and about meeting people and they know what they are talking about. I read carefully the society's pre-budget submission. The society made many strong points in its submission, which, of course, like all other submissions, will be taken into account in the budgetary context."
Mr Brennan said that food costs and fuel price increases had amounted to 12.8 per cent since January 2002, but in the same period social welfare rates, including fuel allowance rates, had increased cumulatively by between 33 per cent and 37 per cent. While the fuel allowance had not increased, the overall increases had far surpassed the costs involved.
Mr Stanton challenged the Minister to say if he agreed with the Society of St Vincent de Paul that there was a problem. "If he disagrees, would he say so?"
Mr Brennan said that there was a problem. Otherwise, there would not be a department like his. "The submission from the Society of St Vincent de Paul is excellent. It is professional and well-researched."
Pressed further, Mr Brennan said that, in the period between 2001 and this year, the lowest social welfare rates had increased by 40 per cent while the consumer price index had increased by just over 13 per cent. Child benefit rates had increased by 65 per cent over the same period, while from 2002 to 2005 pensioners had received increases of €44.71 per week.
In drawing attention to those increases, he was not complacent about the current situation, he said.
