Sinn Féin Support for Society of St Vincent de Paul Call
Published: 28 August, 2006
Lifford-based Sinn Féin Councillor Tony McDaid has this week said that his Party fully supports the recent call from the Society of St Vincent de Paul for investment to help impoverished Donegal.
Cllr McDaid said, " Donegal Sinn Féin fully endorses the recent call by a leading Donegal member of the Society of St Vincent de Paul for the Government to invest here in the county.
For some years now Sinn Féin has been consistently highlighting the fact that Donegal is the poorest county in Ireland, with facts and figures from both the Combat Poverty Agency and the Central Statistics Office clearly establishing the alarming disparity between this county and the rest of the country. Indeed my Party colleague, Cllr Thomas Pringle once accurately described Donegal as being 'top of the worst lists and bottom of the best lists'. In recent weeks CSO statistics have once again confirmed our dismal lack of prosperity by revealing that the county's population has the lowest amount of disposable income, money available for spending after tax, per person than any other area in the country.
The Society of St Vincent de Paul at a National level has just stated that poorer income families now dread the cost of children returning to school more so than the cost of Christmas.
CORI, The Conference of Religious of Ireland, has advised that in a recent survey among 25 European States, Ireland ranked 23 in terms of lower income families being exposed to the risk of consistent poverty, this at a time when Ireland has been declared as the 2nd wealthiest economy per head of capita in the world."
Cllr McDaid continued, " Over recent months I have listened to several of the county's TD's advising us that Donegal is moving in the right direction, that we would witness improvement. We awaited the publication of the much- heralded 'Report of the Interdepartmental Group on Donegal' to announce a collective and cohesive strategy to turn the county around, but sadly the Report was embarrassingly naked of any clear targets and recommended actions to solving the economic crisis in Donegal.
At the July meeting of Donegal Co. Council I called for a presentation to be made on the progress of the Council's work to develop a Local Anti-poverty
Strategy for the county, and it is now proposed that the Community & Enterprise Section, in association with the Combat Poverty Agency, will organise a workshop for Elected Members in the next few months with a view towards highlighting the various issues associated with the Council's role in the context of Social Inclusion and anti-poverty work."
Cllr McDaid concluded, " The Council recently adopted the County Development Plan 2006-2012 with much debate about the legacy for those coming after us. Sinn Féin is committed to ensuring that the legacy is shared by all the citizens of Donegal including those most marginalized and those experiencing disadvantage and inequality."
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