Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have no difficulty in meeting representatives of charities which raise funds in this way. I expect to receive a response from the Garda Commissioner in the not too distant future. I did not set a specific timeline for his response because it is important that he has an opportunity to make any inquiries he needs to make. I am conscious that a large number of charities operate clothing or textile banks around the country. There are thousands of such facilities and I recognise the particular difficulty that arises in securing them. In the early years of their existence people respected the work done by charities out of a sense of decency. The type of events we have seen over the past two to three years were not occurring but it seems they are now on the increase and that the individuals engaged in this criminality have no respect or thought for those who are genuinely in need or who give freely of their time to raise funds, or organisations doing the type of work in which Liberties Recycling is engaged.

I do not know whether these clothing banks could be constructed in a manner that better secured them. Having donated to banks, I am conscious of the size of the opening into which clothes are placed and the ease of accessing their contents. I do not know whether additional thought needs to be given to putting content in without being able to take it out. There may be some mechanical way of addressing that issue. Unfortunately, if people are intent on criminality, it seems that nothing is sacrosanct nowadays and they will engage in such conduct. This is an issue on which the Garda may have interesting or important observations and the charities themselves may also wish to consider it collectively. I would be happy to communicate further with Deputy Catherine Byrne when I receive the expected response from the Commissioner and I am more than happy to meet with any group to discuss the issue. Perhaps such groups would share with me their thoughts on how clothing banks could be better secured.

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