Why in the Ireland of 2007 are we allowing women to beg on the streets of our capital city with babies in a buggy or in their arms? At lunch time each day I pass a woman who I guess is in her early twenties sitting in exactly the same spot with a baby in a buggy. The last few days have been freezing cold so no responsible mother would have her young baby sitting on the side of the street for hours at end.
Why do we allow this to happen? Why in Celtic tiger Ireland do we not provide enough child welfare that children do not have to be used as begging props? Why do we do we not provide enough places in refuges to, at the very least, shelter every homeless woman with a baby? It's Christmas time and 2000 years ago a mother could find a stable to shelter in instead of sitting under a builders hoardings like today.
Finally if those services are provided and a mother still insists on placing her baby on the side of a busy street in freezing weather simply to guilt passers by into giving more money, why do the Gardai simply not take the baby into care and hand it to social services who can perhaps make sure it survives to see next summer?
Why do we allow this to happen? Why in Celtic tiger Ireland do we not provide enough child welfare that children do not have to be used as begging props? Why do we do we not provide enough places in refuges to, at the very least, shelter every homeless woman with a baby? It's Christmas time and 2000 years ago a mother could find a stable to shelter in instead of sitting under a builders hoardings like today.
Finally if those services are provided and a mother still insists on placing her baby on the side of a busy street in freezing weather simply to guilt passers by into giving more money, why do the Gardai simply not take the baby into care and hand it to social services who can perhaps make sure it survives to see next summer?
2 comments:
This is going to sound really cynical and cold hearted but these are "professional" beggars. You see more of them turn out in the run up to Christmas. And I have seen them gathered at the back of the Stepehens Green centre at the end of the day handign the money over to their "menfolk".
The Guards try to stop this, but the same men operate as spotters, watching out for the boys in blue.
There are some people living in real poverty. But there are a load of scammers out there too. Teh way to be reasonably sure you money is doing the most good is to give it to a group like St Vincent de Paul, and not the hard luck case you see on the street.
Why in Celtic tiger Ireland do we not provide enough child welfare that children do not have to be used as begging props?
Maybe you mean "why in Celtic tiger Ireland do we not provide enough social welfare that people do not have to beg" because the children are there solely because they make more money with them than without them. Begging is a business like any other and children, location, level of dishevelment, and age among others can offer a competitive advantage over your competitors.
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