Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

I begin by joining Deputy O'Connor in expressing my sadness on the sudden death of Senator Phelan. For several years now he and I have stayed in the same hotel in Dublin and I found him a very decent, honourable and hard-working Senator. I offer my sympathies to his family. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

I take this opportunity, as we are dealing with a criminal justice Bill, to congratulate the Garda Commissioner, his team of detectives and the relevant members of the force, together with their counterparts in Spain and the United Kingdom, on their excellent work on Operation Shovel. I hope it will help alleviate the hardship caused by the menace of drugs affecting this country.

I welcome an opportunity to speak in the debate on the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Bill 2010. The name of the Bill would suggest we are debating a different issue but it is an important Bill in that it creates a new public order offence of begging when it takes place in a particularly sensitive location or is accompanied by intimidating or offensive behaviour. As other speakers have said, the Bill seeks to address the position which arose following the 2007 High Court judgment in Dylan v. the DPP which found that the law on begging as it stood was unconstitutional.

The object of the Bill is to crack down on begging gangs and associated anti-social behaviour. Previous speakers mentioned professional begging and people who need to beg, and it is important that we distinguish between both. There has been a broad welcome for the legislation from the retail community, newsagents, the Garda Síochána in particular, shopkeepers, business people and, more important, tourism interests. Tourist numbers have fallen dramatically but many of us who have travelled to foreign countries have been plagued by people begging on the streets which is offputting, offensive and intimidating. It would make one decide not to return to particular countries.

I am aware the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and the various other tourism groups throughout the country are very concerned about the high number of incidents of begging, particularly in the capital city but also in urban areas, which puts people off and is a real problem.

Persistent begging is a major cause of concern. People do not mind the genuine cases, as other speakers have said, but the problem arises when people going about their daily business are constantly harassed. This legislation is designed to deal with that problem.

We have all heard stories and have seen examples of people who were intimidated by people begging. I was talking to a man in Limerick during the week, a Clare man, who needed to get money from an ATM. It was 8 o'clock at night. Three times during the process of making the transaction a beggar came up behind him and started tapping him looking for money. He was fearful that he might be attacked or that the beggar may have had accomplices and he left without finishing the transaction. He was frightened.

I am aware of another case where a young woman in a similar situation got so frightened that she left the money, which was about €100, in the machine. It had not come out of the ATM and she left it behind it because she was so fearful of the situation.

I have heard of other cases of people going into funeral homes being pestered by beggars on a number of occasions. People can be very upset by those type of incidents. They must be stamped out because there are many people caught in the poverty trap who have no alternative but to look for help on the streets. That is a sad reflection on society.

Penalties are imposed for this offence. Section 3 of the Bill provides for a member of the Garda Síochána to direct persons who are begging to desist and move on from the certain locations, the obvious one being 10 m from an ATM or vending machine but also 10 m from the entrance to a dwelling or a business premises that is open for trade or transaction with members of the public or if the Garda Síochána have reasonable grounds for believing that due to the person's behaviour and the number of persons begging at or near those premises, a member of the public is likely to be deterred from entering this premises. That is important and it is the reason many of the business groups have welcomed this legislation.

We have all noticed the increase in the number of people begging on our streets since the recession. In particular we see people begging in and around churches and cathedrals. It is a common place for people to beg and can be intimidating, particularly for elderly people who go to the church to pray but find these people are around the church looking for money and harassing people. It is important we have legislation in place to stop that type of activity.

It is unfortunate that a consequence of the downturn in the economy is that more people find themselves with nowhere to go other than to try to survive on the streets. Every night when I walk back to my hotel I notice people sleeping on the streets and people begging for money. Those are genuine people and it is a sad reflection on society that despite the number of houses we built during the Celtic tiger years, many people found it difficult to get on the property ladder. The waiting list for social housing has doubled and to compound the problem many people have lost their jobs and find it impossible to pay their mortgages. For many people the sad reality is that they are losing their homes. At any one time approximately 5,000 people are homeless in this country and there are almost 100,000 people on local authority social housing waiting lists, with 93,000 households in receipt of rent supplements.

In my own constituency of County Clare there are 2,464 families and individuals on the social housing list. It is a pity the Government does not show the necessary commitment to deal with poverty in this country. That is important. My colleague, Deputy Flanagan, outlined that in his contribution when he said that we cannot deal with the problem of vagrancy through the criminal justice system alone because begging is inextricably linked to poverty, homelessness and access to social services. He further stated that the Government needs to address the reasons we have a begging issue. That is an important statement and this problem is something all of us in this House should be addressing.

The words of the founder of Focus Ireland, Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy, reflect the position very well. She stated: "How can it be that Ireland managed to build in the region of 250,000 homes that were not needed during the boom years, yet we have still failed to provide enough homes for those who need them most?"

In general terms, and other speakers referred to this, Irish people are very disposed towards contributing to charity organisations. A recent survey compiled by the Irish Charity Engagement Monitor shows that three out of every four people in this country donate to charity but levels are falling because of the recession. For example, the number of Irish people donating to charity fell by 75% in November 2009 compared to 83% in March 2008. Of course, charities are very dependent on on-street cash fundraising and it is important that they can continue to raise funds in this manner without any disruption.

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