On-street food kitchens, which provide free meals to homeless people in Dublin, will have to apply for special “casual trading” licences, meet minimum food-safety standards and ensure their volunteers are Garda-vetted, under moves to regulate the sector.
Long-awaited proposals on new on-street food service bylaws, which could also include provisions of a central “food hall” where volunteers could prepare and distribute food, will be discussed at Dublin City Council’s housing and social inclusion committee on Monday.
In a briefing note, council officials say regulations will mandate food safety compliance, “training and Garda vetting for all volunteers”, and a “system to ensure compliance and governance”.
Voluntary food providers will be called to a meeting next week where they will “review existing casual trading bylaws for the purpose of adapting these for on-street food services”.
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The future for voluntary food providers in the capital remains uncertain amid pressure from both council officials and Government for the sector to be curtailed.
An estimated 24 services operate without regulation, giving out free hot and cold meals, groceries, toiletries, clothing and bedding. While a small number of services have charitable status, the vast majority do not.
The Taoiseach’s taskforce report for Dublin, published in October, described the services as “well-intentioned”, but said they put “the privacy, dignity and the safety of people” using them at risk and that such activity “degrades the public realm”.
Groups providing the services, such as the Muslim Sisters of Eire which feeds up to 470 people at the GPO every Friday night, hit back, saying they are meeting a “genuine need” among Dublin’s poorest residents not only for food but for community. They challenged officials to seek the views of people using their services.
The Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE), which has been engaging with providers since February last year, says bylaws are needed to ensure the “regulations and laws that apply to charities, trading, food safety and homeless service providers are adhered to” by these groups, to ensure “vulnerable members of our community are protected”.
It has had four “pre-consultation” meeting with services, some of whom “were quite hesitant about attending the meetings initially”, says the briefing note. “Concerns [included] being reported to the Food Safety Authority and Charity [sic] Regulator and belief that it was aimed only at shutting them down”.
Concerns raised by service providers about bylaws include compulsory registration with the Charities Regulator which is seen as “costly, time consuming and very onerous”; that the bar would be “set too high for obtaining a [casual trading] licence, and, restrictions on the times, days and places they may operate”.
[ The Irish Times view on soup kitchens: safety and dignity must be priorityOpens in new window ]
At next week’s meeting groups will be asked to “provide a summary of their service and suggested standards they would like to see implemented”.
“This will help form an agreed set of standards and training requirements to be implemented. The DRHE will continue to engage and encourage services to take part in the meetings to ensure that their perspective and input is reflective in the final recommendations ... for the drafting of the on street food service bylaws,” says the note.
