Mr. Richard Guiney:

The perception of organised begging has been mentioned on a few occasions. That matter is dealt with in section 5 of 2011 Act. I understand the Garda prepared what it considered to be a very detailed file for the DPP, but the DPP did not proceed with it. I understand there is vagueness around that section and there is a view that it would be almost impossible to get a conviction under section 5, and it needs to be looked at.

Deputy McFadden spoke about children. Section 247 of the Children Act 2001 is used extensively to deal with children brought into the begging equation and that has been quite successful.

On general begging, as some of my colleagues have mentioned, there is vagueness on the implementation of that and whether the gardaí need to verify that someone has a permit to collect money, perhaps involving asking questions in languages other than English. There are certainly aspects of the legislation that need to be clarified.