The Kerry father forced to starve his children in order to meet his mortgage payments is to seek help from local support services.
MP MacDomhnaill touched the hearts of the nation when his letter to the Irish Times revealed that he cannot afford to feed his kids anything other than bread and cereal.
Contacted regularly by the paper since his letter first appeared last Friday, MacDomhnaill has no agreed to seek help from local services and will endeavor to renegotiate the terms of his $120,000 mortgage.
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Speaking to the Irish Times after they received his letter, MacDomhnaill told the paper that his family had just $50 a week to live on as the vast majority of the household income was going to service a mortgage of $100,000.
MacDomhnaill told the paper that he wrote the letter in the hope that it: “Might facilitate a discussion.
“I hope that the issue and issues raised will generate useful public debate and positive action.”
The latest development comes after Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton led the calls for the social welfare recipient, currently on $1,000 a month dole payments, to contact welfare organizations in his area.
“I don’t want to comment on the individual details but the man and his family are obviously in an awful lot of distress,” said Minister Burton.
“I would urge him to make contact with his local social welfare officer or the local community welfare officer or even the St Vincent de Paul Society because I think he may have entitlements which he may not have already claimed.”
The minister highlighted that a scheme is in place where the government will pay the interest portion of a homeowner’s mortgage repayments.
Figures released by Minister Burton reveal that the number of families receiving help under the mortgage interest supplement and rent relief schemes have increased by almost 340 per cent in the last three years.
The Minister said that 18,679 households had received payments under the mortgage interest supplement scheme at a cost of €77.2 million this year, up almost €12 million from 2010.
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