Stories of ordinary people who are “at breaking point” after three years of austerity policies, and up to six years of recession, are told in a report published today.
The report, Now You See Us: The human stories behind poverty in Ireland , is published by the Community Platform, an umbrella group of 30 national organisations working to combat inequality and poverty.
They include the Irish Traveller Movement, Focus Ireland, Women's Aid, the Irish Penal Reform Trust and the Vincentian Partnership for Justice.
The report is based on the findings from interviews with 10 ordinary people, including a non-Irish chef in Dublin, a primary healthcare worker in Dublin, a mother in Co Clare whose husband has had to leave Ireland to find work and a homeless woman in Dublin.
The researchers asked them: “How is the recession, and Government policy, affecting your life?”
Lowest incomes
Authors say the report confirms the experience of platform members working on the ground, that austerity measures have been felt most keenly by people on the lowest incomes and most dependent on public services.
It documents parents going hungry to feed their children, people unable to heat their homes and a young generation at serious risk of being lost to unemployment, drugs and crime.
“They now see these services and supports being cut and incomes greatly reduced. Many people are struggling to heat their homes or adequately feed themselves and their families and we have seen a growth of people queuing for food parcels in our cities and towns.”
A myriad of spending and service cuts, and tax increases are cited, which have “driven people into poverty”, including that those on low income have been brought into the tax net through the introduction of the Universal Social Charge for anyone earning over €10,036 per annum; since last year anyone earning over €18,000 is paying an extra €5 per week on PRSI; basic social welfare payments for those between 26 and 64 years have been cut by €16; the elimination of the Christmas bonus in 2008; the loss by older people of some of their household package; new prescription charges; rent supplement cuts; and child benefit cuts.
Among those interviewed is “Amy”, a single mother of two children. She describes Wednesday each week, the last day before she gets the family’s welfare payment, as the “most depressing” when there is almost nothing left in the home to eat:
“Come every Wednesday, I’m on emergency electricity and I’m on emergency gas, after putting €30 in on both the week before.
