Dublin City Centre-Drugs/Begging etc

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papervalue

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I work in the city centre. The city centre has had its issues with drugs and begging for drink/coffee/bus etc but recently I feel it is getting worse and worse.

I have gone to many different places in ireland and abroad and have not seem the level of carry on that now goes on in city centre day to day.

Before 9am this morning I seem 2 males and 1 female early 20's getting ready to shoot up on herion in a doorway near central bank.

People in city centre now seem to approch people asking for money say for a bus.(example) When has this become so acceptable to approach people on street looking for money. If i dont have money for a bus I walk home regardless of weather.

I have no problem giving money to a genuine homeless case but the amount of unnessary begging would put you off even carrying money in city centre.

If i was a tourist in dublin now, from what i see on streets day to day, I certainly would not return to holiday here. The city centre should be the safe/clean. I would be very slow to take my parents/ niece etc around Dublin. A lot of other safer cities to go to.

Also the problem of begging outside atm/shops, heapenny bridge- effect flow of traffic accross bridge.- Initimidation sitting under atm


I am all for giving money to the genuine homeless in dublin but it is harder to find them.
I not having a go at guards but thier presence seems very small on street,

They have to bring in laws/more guards to give the city back to the people

Anyone who is daily in city centre- Do you think it is getting better or worse? What can they do to solve the problem?
 
papervalue said:
Do you think it is getting better or worse? What can they do to solve the problem?
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It IS getting worse. There was a huge thread over on boards recently about it - talking about how selling and taking drugs is happening in plain public view in the city centre now.

There are methadone clinics in the city centre near main tourist areas - unless you move the methadone clinics there will be junkies in the areas they are in.
 
papervalue said:
I am all for giving money to the genuine homeless in dublin but it is harder to find them.
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Personally if I want to give money to the homeless I give to the likes of the Dublin Simon community - not someone begging on the street - I never give money to anyone begging as chances are it goes straight into a publicans till.
 
I stroll along Nassau Street to Dawson Street most weekends and every 50 yds or so there is someone begging. Same people every weekend. I counted 9 people begging recently. I understand that begging is not illegal anymore is this correct?
Anyhow, needless to say I never see a policeman.
 
I often wondered why they don't move the methadone clinics down to the port area further east.
It doesn't solve anything and it's not a case of hiding the problem but it does move it out of the city centre

Well either that or move the clinics to the suburbs but then residents would scream NIMBY.
 
There seems to be a move to reintroduce a begging law again, in my view the politicians should have done so as soon as the old law was over turned. They can rush through legislation in a few days they want to.

Anyway, yesterday and just off Grafton Street I was told to F'Off by a beggar who approached me looking for money. 20 minutes earlier I was passed by two large ministerial mercs travelling at high speed, through red lights complete with 3 or 4 Traffic Garda outriders with sirens blearing on their motorbikes... They live in a different world from reality...
 
The first time I realised there was a problem with junkies loitering on the boardwalk near O'Connell Bridge was a couple of years ago when I was walking with my daughter (then about 5/6) and we witnessed one of them urinating about 10 yards ahead of us.

He saw us and slurred/drawled an apology, so that made it OK

There's a character who sets up 'shop' outside our (suburban) Church before Masses each Sunday. Predatory begging.
 

Some (15) years ago, I attended a community meeting in Ringsend in opposition to a proposal to dispense methadone from the community centre. My then GF owned an apartment opposite. The people most vocal in opposition were the locals, the second and third generation 'Raytown-ers'.

NIMBYism is not exclusive to 'burbs.
 
At the Luas stop in Abbey street, which should be renamed "junkie central" you frequently hear someone from Luas control on the intercom warning people that pickpockets/thieves are operating at the stop - they even sometimes give a discription of the alleged pickpockets - this is someone talking live, not a recorded message. Gardai should be called and people arrested.
 
Tbh, I'd call Ringsend a suburb, it's not in the city centre, it's a completely separate area with its own history and identity
 


The first and last time I walked down the 'Broadwalk', I thought ***** what am I doing here!
 
Speaking as a non dub it has got much worse - reminded me of when I was in San Fran. I was with friends recently outside Bruxells and we were asked at least 10 times for money. A lot were saying it was for a hostel.
 

Luas stop at Heuston is supposed to be bad also. My wife has been approached by beggars when she was getting tickets from the machine. She found it quite intimidating.
 
I dont think its just the city centre though, junkies seem to be appearing in increasing numbers in suburban shopping areas/luas stations now too. I havent used it myself but a number of my friends tell me they absolutely will not use the luas at the square in Tallaght because of the numbers of junkies - its just too intimidating.
 
It has gotten much worse over the last few years. Having lived in Dublin on my own for the past 5 years I've become increasingly aware of my own personal safety. When I was younger, 19/20 I would offer sandwiches/hot/cold drink to someone on the street and was always told f-off, eventually I stopped offering. I never give money to people begging on the street, I give to the simon community or other such organisations (my friend volunteers with the simon community and they do great work). A couple of months ago a friend and I were walking down Grafton Street deep in conversation when a girl approached us, she didn't look scruffy and wasn't carrying a sleeping bag/old coffee cup so i didn't assume she was a beggar, she had obviously asked us a question but because we were deep in conversation I asked her to repeat it, to which she replied "you ugly b****, f-off" I just ignored her, not wanting to get into a shouting match with her and proceeded to walk off, she stuck out her foot and tripped me up, I smacked my chin off the ground and chipped my two front teeth, bit of blood etc. Walked down the street with my friend to get a taxi home and assess the damage and as we were going I saw two gardai, told them about the incident and was told ah sure you're not too badly hurt are you? and off they went. In fairness the damage was minimal but a couple of days later I went to Pearse Street Garda Station (after being talked into it by family) to make a complaint and was told, sure nothing we can do now, she could be anywhere, I then suggested telling their beat patrol gardai to be a bit more proactive and was told "don't tell us how to police the streets missy" - well that told me!

In relation to this image of drug taking/begging giving a bad impression to tourists all you have to do is look at where these people are. Methadone clinic across the road from main entrance of hueston station, right beside the bus stop. Usually a huge amount of people coming and going from there on a Saturday morning. Also, the amount of beggars hanging around Busaras is unbelievable and they not only have a garda station across the road but their own security presence. The same can be said about beggars at the luas stop in Hueston station and at all the luas stops, specifically Abbey Street. I use the luas at Hueston every Friday evening and every Sunday morning at the same time and use the luas stop at Abbey Street every Sunday afternoon at the same time and there is always the same people there. Making announcements over loudspeakers is not good enough. The only good thing about security in Hueston is that they all look like they're on steroids so I'd say this deters beggars etc. A few weeks ago when Tony Blair was doing his book signing in Easons and the luas got stopped for 1-2 hours as his vehicles used the luas tracks to get away from Abbey Street, I was sitting on a luas at Smithfield (they were running from Smithfield to another point-can't remember where) and a garda got on and I looked out the window and there was a young guy weeing against the luas stop on the opposite side, garda had his back to the incident, no peripheral vision whatsoever!

There's a kid who sings/begs on Henry Street, has done so for years. Usually has a bucket and no shoes, usually around Arnotts and he sings old Irish songs, there is also a foreign guy that begs, sometimes on Henry Street or the Ha'penny Bridge, he also has no shoes and his feet are scruffy, he sits there shaking with an old coffee cup and a jumper pulled down over his knees, why has nothing been done to take either of these off the street? I was under the impression begging is illegal in Ireland?

The fact that they let people into this country and their primary intention is to sit on the street begging drives me bananas.

And I agree with other posters, the boardwalk is absolute no-go for me, it's sad that money was spent on something that could be used by so many people for walking and just enjoying the city centre but everyone I know avoids it (majority of people I see there are junkies/beggars/homeless people or tourists who don't realise).
 
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I also work in the city centre and have recently begun travelling to/from Heuston by the Luas. I cannot get over the volume of people I see every morning and evening around Abbey Street who are completely out of it. It's frightening standing there if you are on your own. Earlier this week morning, we were greeted at the Luas stop at 8:30am on Monday morning by a man shouting "What day is it? What day is it?" as he staggered about on the path.

Last Thursday really took the biscuit however. At around 5:45pm, I witnessed an agrument followed by a really vicious assault by a young man on a female, in full view of everyone at Jervis Luas stop. Both of them were totally out of it but nobody whatsoever intervened. I think everyone was too afraid of them - I certainly was.

A woman beside me telephoned for the police but a few minutes later, the next Luas arrived and everyone (including the man who carried out the assault) hopped on and
that was it. It was just shocking to see this type of violence on the street - and in full view of everyone at the stop.

I absolutely dread taking the Luas now and have started driving to/from work again!
 
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Yeah its getting worse a bit. I have recently started getting randomly approached by some fella's asking for money for a bus to kildare bla bla. But to be honest its always been around. Of course when you say no they end up giving up some lip.

Then there is the organised begging you see. Every morning I see the same young girl (looks romanian, can't see for sure if she is) begging at one particular car parking machine. This morning she was just coming out of Insomnia with a take away coffee and making her way up to her usual spot. Nice to see she can afford the ol' latte in the mornings.
 
When I worked near stephen's green I used to see a romanian family get out of a taxi at one of the park entrances and disperse to their begging spots and then in the evenings i'd see them in the same spot getting into a taxi and on their way.
 
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