Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will take my own slot now and then allow Deputy Gould and Senator Fitzpatrick to ask a short question at the end. I am anxious to finish by 5.20 p.m.

I wish the witnesses had been present for some of the previous discussions we had at this committee, although I am sure they have observed them. What everyone is saying here is that supply is the answer.

We have had a good discussion today. We have representatives of business owners and people trading in the city and promoting it, as well as a lot of homelessness service providers. I want to speak about an issue that overlaps the two areas.

As anybody who has gone out on a homelessness run in the evening will know, at least in the case of the ones I have done, they are reluctant to provide food. In fact, many of them have a policy of not providing sleeping bags, and that is because those people who are engaged in homelessness services know that is not the best way to engage with people. A cup of tea might get the conversation started, which might help people make the referral into emergency accommodation and so on, but we know the soup run model is not the best model.

Given what is known by the established agencies to be best practice and in light of the points that have been raised by Dublin Town regarding the impact of some of the informal soup kitchens and homelessness interventions in the city centre, is there something we can do for what is a very unregulated sector but that often comprises very well-meaning groups of people? Everybody is in the same space whereby we know that is not the best way to intervene and that it has a negative impact on trade, but we want to find a way of focusing that voluntary effort. Are there ways in which the witnesses think that can be done, from the perspective of this side of the house? Mr. Moynihan might wish to respond.