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THE LORD MAYOR of Dublin is planning to meet providers of soup kitchens later this week over proposed draft byelaws that would prohibit volunteer groups from providing on-street food to the city’s homeless.
Dublin City Council is working on new byelaws that would seek to regulate on-street soup kitchens, restricting where they can operate from and ensuring they comply with food safety regulations.
The byelaw would prohibit charitable groups from setting up services, including hot food, for people on the city’s streets.
Long queues of people are regularly seen outside the GPO on O’Connell Street during the day and in the evening, waiting for hot meals and drinks.
The introduction of new byelaws was recommended as part of the Taoiseach’s Taskforce for Dublin report, which called for the development and enaction of new byelaws to regulate on-street charitable services such as soup kitchens and other services.
The move has been criticised by some of the providers, while a large crowd gathered outside City Hall to protest against the proposed plans.
Lord Mayor of Dublin Emma Blain told PA news agency: “What I want to do this week and what I’m planning to do at the end of the week, is to visit some of those soup kitchens and talk directly to the providers and listen to their concerns and meet the people that they’re that they’re catering to.
“That’s what my plan is for this week, take it back to my fellow councillors and we will discuss it then.”
She added: “It’s something that’s under review at the moment.
“I think you would have seen in our council meeting last week that all councillors, across the board, of course, all political parties, are really supportive of the work that soup kitchens do.
“So there are no byelaws drafted at the moment.
“There’s nothing to review at the moment, but I think we all spoke in support of the fantastic work that soup kitchens do, and that’s where we are at the moment.”
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Would this be another part of the Governments Plan to Hide the Homeless.
I think the Lord Mayor should be supportive of keeping them front and center on O’Connell Street until they do something about the problem.
We have 15,000+ “officially” homeless, 80,000 Ukrainian homeless, 20,000 IPAS homeless and god knows how many others who are homeless but are not counted.
15,000 Homeless?, more like 150,000 Homeless
They need to give accurate counts and costs to the taxpayer for this unmitigated mess.
@Paddy Short: “News that An Bord Pleanála had turned down a proposed development of 881 apartments on the site of the old Dundrum shopping centre follows an all-too-familiar pattern. A lengthy and complicated process has a project shot down due to objections and the decision of planners that rules had been contravened. Initial plans to redevelop this site go back as far as 2004, with the latest decision relating to an application process that started towards the end of 2021.”
@Paddy Short: Shame they cant ‘hide’ the smak heads and dealers
@thomas molloy: You should cite a quotation.. it’s pointless otherwise. Perhaps because you gleaned it from another MSM outlet? Ya know the one’s ya bang on about daily.. seems your happy to cite them when it suits your agenda driven drivel though..
@Paddy Short: you should have asked Santa for a calculator, incidentally there isn’t 15k homeless, there are 15k in emergency accomodation
@Paddy Short: the aim of ff fg sinn fein us to increase population through immigration thereby increasing homelessness. Bad for those currently homeless and those here and on they’re way here to join the homeless figures but sure let’s stay going instead of ceasing immigration temporarily and housing those here, pointless I suppose.
@Paddy Short: a fine Gael lord mayor ?
She would gladly push them into the Liffey
@Johnny Wilson: yes those documented. I’m homeless after owning my own home but the DCC took me off the register because I left a homeless hostel. Now I have nowhere to go after buying alone at 22 or 23 can’t remember. They won’t even acknowledge you on the ‘emergency line’ presuming all us that are homeless have a phone FFS.
@Donna Fallon: please link in with Focus Ireland. They will help you to access your needs.
Ireland trying to do what the Democrats in the US like to do, pretend the homeless don’t exist.
Out of sight out of mind
Rough sleepers are quite few in the city, surely there can be a designated state run cafe/restaurant to feed these unfortunate people indoors with some dignity? Have to say the people who run these soup kitchens are the best type of people but they are endangering themselves and other volunteers out in the open in all kinds of weather and exposed to potential violence.
@Freda Peeple: City council don’t want homeless in the city centres. That’s basically it.
@Freda Peeple: They do this but only for the foreign homeless. They give them beds, too, and pepper spray the locals if they complain about it.
@Freda Peeple: Those in need roug sleepers, those in hostels, poor, etc have many free registered daily food centres around the city i.e. Merchant Quay Ireland, Focus, Penny diners, and more. These have existed for many many years, and they also have follow on programes i.e information helpng access benefits due, access to medical treatment, dental etc, housing, to assist their situations.
Untrue, there are many free registered food centres in the city centre. FOCUS ireland, MQI, Penny Dinners, and many more. These organisations provide meals, support, food packages, showers, welcome and care to the poor and needy in our city
Faceless pen pushers in suits with zero humanity making draconian laws that deprive the most vulnerable members of society a cup of warm soup. Mind boggling.
@Brian McCarthy: …..and making affordable Bedsits illegal caving in to virtue signalling armchair socialists.
@Brian McCarthy: Well we can’t have them getting food poisoning when they’re already at risk from chronic substance abuse, mental illness, street violence, prostitution and freezing weather. Imagine getting an upset tummy on top of all that!
@Brian McCarthy: mind boggling that you’re against necessary food safety compliance.
Let’s leave out all the political claptrap. They are hungry humans. Let them be fed in the name of our common humanity.
@michael powell: I fully agree with you, but:
There’re two sides of the coin.
Feeding the homeless is a noble cause, no question.
The problem is, there’re countless of Facebook and WhatsApp groups running for so called “language students” and plenty others, where and when to get free food.
I dare to say, a pretty sizable part of the “customers” are supposed to provide for themselves and\or try to get free food to have money for spending on something else.
The ” no question asked” policy is simply a free for a lot of people who do not need it by now.
The rough sleepers, the ” hungry humans.” should be fed – no question, but far too many are taking advantage of the goodwill of these volunteers today.
Sounds like a sensible solution. Bring the soup kitchens indoors I pass the GPO regularly and every morning there is discarded food containers, packaging vomit clothes and sleeping bags everywhere
There are at most 100 rough sleepers but plenty more take advantage of peoples good will and generosity. The food distribution tables draw drunks, unsocial behaviour and drugs
It is about time City Council pushed back against these do gooders
And by the way the 15000 sp called homeless have tax payer provided accommodation. And the figure across the border where SF are in power is many multiples of those
@Peter Byrne: Oh God love you x my heart bleeds…
Fairly clear to see why there isn’t any female representation on this site, do all ye guys slag each other off all the time?
@Mary Linton: I’m actually a trans lesbian and I find that very offensive.
@Chop Chop: Thank you, I ‘rest my case’
@Mary Linton: How do we even know that you’re a woman?
@Chop Chop: I have a doctor’s appointment on Thursday, 16th…… You want to come too?
@Mary Linton: Not really, thanks, but I hope all goes well for you.
@Mary Linton:
Privilege is a ladder and those at the top mostly except their elite position of privilege as a right. Those at the bottom blindly except the privilege of the elite as a right and so to tentatively stay where we are on the ladder. we except the laws of privilege to deny asscension to all our perceived underlings at every possible opportunity ,
for the privilege of the privileged is to deny equality and justify oppression racisim and power in all its guises.
Soup saves lives
Let them eat cake, not that long ago, we saw a child eating out of a cardboard box on the street & there was outrage, MSM & Politicians of all hues are all talk, kids still eating off the street & many more going hungry. Ireland is a mess, very divided & many social issues, lots of working class families only a pay cheque away from needing soup kitchens, MSM & Politicians are in a social bubble due to their extravagant salaries & removed from the realities of everyday living, an embarrassment of a country at present.
Well done FFG voters
@Kevin O Brien: who controls Dublin City Council?
if they push too much, it will be a dangerous situation… they have no home but if you starve them and suppress hope, this could go out of control… not that the big lads in suits elected mayor and companies behind that care… but remember v for vendetta
Maybe if the government provided the meals with all the money they have there’d be no need for these charities with the wonderful volunteers we now pay to have our electricial appliances even plugs disposed of our bags our bottles and cans a person gets elected and decides our fate the live crib now the poor who depend on this food law for rich law for poor
have your say