Madam, - The Government decides in its wisdom to enact laws to "discourage" aggressive begging on our streets with penalties of up to €700 or a month in prison.
Meanwhile, two of our banks have written to customers in the past fortnight warning of stiff penalties for customer and business accounts that breach overdraft limits - penalties that for hundreds of vulnerable people may add up to more than €700 over the next year.
Yet which of the two is the greater financial crime - asking for alms in an aggressive manner, or our banking institutions aggressively seeking to replenish their self-depleted coffers at the expense of ordinary banking citizens?
It seems to me that our Government should ease up on the homeless and clamp down on those reckless bankers who do not seem to have enough common decency to recognise a €500 billion "get out of jail free card" when they are thrown one. Perhaps a month in jail might do some of them some good. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - For anyone familiar with the streets of Dublin, it is clear that there has been a large increase in the number of homeless people, and the number of people begging at cash machines and outside pubs and restaurants. Rather than dealing with the root causes, and responding to them, the proposed new begging laws give gardaí powers to limit the "nuisance" caused to tourists or to those that can afford to take €200 from an ATM on a Saturday night. The last thing the Government wants is for people to realise they have a conscience, or that the Government doesn't. - Yours, etc,
Madam, - Our current economic woes compel us as never before to prioritise what we spend our money on and what kind of society we want to have.
Two contrasting stories highlight the misguided priorities of the Government. On the one hand, we had the Taoiseach staunchly defending the director general of Fás over the lavish expenses incurred by him and his senior executives.
On the other hand, the Minister for Justice announced penalties of up to a €700 fine or a month in jail for begging. Do people who have €700 to hand engage in begging? Given the impact of Government cutbacks, the support for those who live on streets and need to beg will be curtailed and it more likely that the default option will be prison, if there is room.
Then there is the cost. In 2006, the Irish Prison Service maintained it cost an average of €249 per day to detain a prisoner.
Is this how we want to prioritise our spending? Is this the kind of society we want to have? - Yours, etc,