Campaigning cleric says poverty in Dublin comparable to 1916

As Dublin prepares to cater for up to 25 million shoppers between now and Christmas, Br Kevin Crowley of the Capuchin Day Centre has said poverty levels in the city are now comparable to 1916 and still worsening.

Br Kevin said the Capuchin Centre which provides up to 600 hot dinners and several hundred breakfasts, as well as up to 1,700 food parcels once a week said demand for the centre’s services is higher than it was 50 years ago.

He said his fear was that “things are getting worse”, particularly for those sleeping rough in cold weather.

“It is absolutely appalling that in 2016 so many people should be coming in freezing with the cold,” he said.

‘Absolutely appalling’

“Now in 2016 each morning about 7am we open our doors and roughly about 250 people to 300 people come in that we feed for breakfast.

“To me that is absolutely appalling that this time in 2016 that so many people should be coming in.

“Then for dinner we would have anything from 450 to 500, some days 600,” he said.

“My big concern at the moment too is for the number of children coming to the centre. Each day we would have up to 30 or 40 families and these are little children that have to go to a hotel in the evening.”

He recalled a woman with three children who had been housed by social services in a hotel in the Portmarnock area, had arrived recently having left her children behind as she did not have the bus fare to bring them into town.

“These people are going into the hotels without any food whatsoever.”

Food parcels

He said “on Wednesday we give out food parcels and up to the time of the recession we would have about 400 people coming for the food parcels, now any Wednesday we have anything from 1,600 to 1,700 people coming for the food parcels.”

“Again it is appalling to think that you see people queuing up. Nobody should be queuing for food in 2016. When you look back in 1916 we had poverty but to me I think we still have poverty and to me it seems to be getting worse.”

Br Kevin, who was speaking on the RTÉ programme Sunday with Miriam, said he was concerned about how relief money was being spent, such as on hotels, instead of a better solution.

The Capuchin Day Centre has running costs of about €3.3 million per year, about €450,000 of which is provided by government, he said. The centre does not formally fundraise , nor does it pay people to raise money on its behalf. It survives on donations.

Br Kevin was interviewed with Sr Consilio Fitzgerald of Cuan Mhuire, a charitable drug, alcohol and gambling rehabilitation organisation in Ireland. Sr Consilio's book The Harbour Within a Book of Simple Spirituality has recently been published by the Hachette Press.