Updated 20.17

DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL is to vote on whether charity shops should be banned from one of the city’s main shopping streets under a proposal that has been dismissed as “snobbery”.

The 52 councillors who sit on the Council will vote on Monday night on a plan which outlines the future development of Grafton Street. The draft report says the Council should not grant planning permission for charity shops because they would “detract from the character of the street”.

Fundraising Ireland and the Irish Charity Shops Association said Dublin City Council was trying to put charity shops on a par with sex shops, bookmakers and amusement arcades, and said the decision was based on snobbery rather than retailing facts.

Oxfam Ireland, which has a charity shop on the nearby South King Street, said the proposal was based on an “outdated” view of charity shops.

Assistant City Manager Jim Keoghan has recommended that councillors accept the Grafton Street and Environs Draft Planning Scheme at its monthly meeting.

However Fianna Fáil councillor Mary Fitzpatrick has submitted a motion to amend the Grafton Street plan by removing the charity shop ban and has called on other political parties in the Labour-controlled council to support it.

“It’s an unnecessary exclusion,” she told TheJournal.ie. “If charity shops can conform with the planning standards that every other retailer does then it’s unfair and unnecessary to ban them.”

I would hope that common sense will prevail.  I don’t think it would accurately reflect the people of Dublin to say that charity shops aren’t allowed on what is probably our next biggest main street in the city.

There is currently just one charity shop on Grafton Street itself, with several others on nearby streets.

The meeting of Dublin City Council begins at 6.45pm on Monday and can be watched live here.

What do you think? Should charity shops be banned from Grafton Street?

Originally published 17.01

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