Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 3 December 2014
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality
Aggressive Begging from a Public Order Perspective: Discussion
9:50 am
Mr. Martin Harte:
Again, there is no evidence or detailed information available. One point that is coming out clearly in this discussion is the need for a proper assessment of the needs of people who are involved. I refer in particular to aggressive begging and repeat that this is not a begging issue but concerns aggressive begging, which is a behavioural piece. We have no evidence and while there may be anecdotal views on certain things, it is not evidence. Consequently, I would not like to draw a link between one and the other, for clarity.