The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) spent almost €3.5 million every month last year fighting poverty, it announced today.
Announcing its annual Christmas appeal today, the society announced a record expenditure of €42.3 million in 2006, an increase of 2.5 per cent on 2005. The charity received almost €26 million from public donations in 2006.
SVP national president Mairéad Bushnell said: "In 2006 our 9,500 volunteers made over 300,000 visits to people's homes and spent over 2.5 million free volunteer hours to tackle crisis situations . . . to help with people's nightmares so that their dreams become possible."
She said there are 815,000 people in Ireland living on the edge of poverty and 285,000 people living in consistent poverty.
SVP's 2006 expenditure included:
- Cash assistance of almost €7.4 million
- Food supplies of almost €4.8 million (up 3.3 per cent)
- Fuel costs paid for at over €3.4 million (up 9.3 per cent)
- Education costs paid for at over €2.7 million (up 8 per cent)
- Holiday breaks/hospitals/outings paid for by SVP at over €1.6 million
- Clothing/furniture supplied at over €1 million
SVP Appeal Week runs from December 2nd to 9th with countrywide collections on Sunday, 9th December. Donations can be made locally, and credit card donations can also be made to SVP through its website: www.svp.ie.
Cheques or postal orders can be sent to SVP National Office, 91-92 Sean MacDermott Street, Dublin 1.