There is outrage amongst homeless charity groups recently after a video has appeared online showing a member of the Gardaí scandalously issuing a ticket to an outreach van of a well-known homelessness charity.
The shameful actions by the Garda in question has made many charity groups all the more angry given the fact the van is funded by the Department of Social Protection. The extraordinary incident is believed to have occurred on Thursday morning at approximately 2.15am, when the gardaí were sweeping the area and trying remove a group of homeless people from the area in Dublin City centre.
It is understood the incident shortly after the Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) had arrived to hand out food and clothes to vulnerable people staying in the area, when a member of An Garda Síochána noticed the charity’s outreach van parked on a double yellow line and began issuing a ticket to the vehicle.
The charity CEO Anthony Flynn who captured the shocking footage told reporters: “Our outreach worker recorded an incident on the night which was out of the norm.”
“We have been given previous assurances that rough sleepers, rather than be displaced, would be engaged with services across the city. There was an issue regarding the placement of our vehicle, which is clearly marked Emergency Vehicle, and it was on hand to provide assistance to rough sleepers.