Gardaí in Cork have cracked down on a new wave of organised begging on the streets of the city.
36 arrests have been made so far this month as part of the crackdown on what is being referred to as ‘commercial begging’.
Last November, 15 people of Eastern European origin were arrested in the city, and it seems that seven months later the controversial activity is still very much in operation.
One individual who was brought before the courts and pleaded guilty to three counts of begging within two days had an invoice for five return flight tickets to Romania.
Another Romanian man was arrested around the same time for begging in Cork in the run-up to Christmas for the third year in a row.
The activity subsided earlier this year but has re-emerged in recent weeks, although gardai have said that arrests won’t eliminate the problem.
There’s a fear that increased Garda activity in one area is displacing the problem to other areas.
The beggars are filling the doorways along the city’s main shopping streets in a coordinated and professional operation.
The latest arrests figure was revealed yesterday during a meeting of the Cork City joint policing committee, which heard several calls for gardai to adopt a more robust approach to tackling the problem.
Chief Superintendent Barry McPolin told the Evening Echo that gardai had an average of 18 to 20 begging arrests every month in recent times.
He said: “We are arresting them and bringing them before the courts, we are playing our part. We have to act within the law at all times. We continue to work with others and collaborate.”
Speaking at last night’s joint policing committee, chief executive of the Cork Business Association, Lawrence Owens, described the organised begging as a terrible thing to happen to the city.
“I don’t think it would be tolerated in other cities, we need something tangible. The status quo is not good enough. We want action,” he said.
Mr Owens added: “We are very giving people and they are playing on that very successfully.”
In some cases, prison sentences of up to the maximum of one month have been imposed in the crackdown on organised begging.
