TRUST, a befriending, social and health service for homeless people, has rejected any suggestion that the public should ignore people begging on the streets and not give them money at Christmas.
"At a time when there is a serious accommodation crisis, calls to the public not to give money to people begging on the streets may only serve to penalise the most vulnerable, especially when there is no such thing as a free hostel bed in Dublin," said Ms Alice Leahy, TRUST's director and co-founder.
"People who become homeless are in many ways outsiders who do not fit in and find it hard to cope in society. Urging the public to actively discriminate against any group is dangerous." Ms Leahy's statement was issued to mark the distribution of TRUST's transition year pack for schools. The TRUST transition year project is a national education initiative co-sponsored by The Irish Times and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
It is aimed at getting students to think about exclusion and about how those whom society regards as outsiders can be made to feel part of the community.