A GROUP WHICH has been cooking food and giving it to homeless people on Dublin’s Grafton Street have been told by gardaí for a second time to stop until they secure the correct permits.
Darren Bradley of the March For The Homeless group say they “will not be going nowhere” after they left the spot last night.
The group say that they have been putting up their stall on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays since June but were stopped for the first time at the weekend.
Bradley says that some of the food they hand out is made in advance while some of it is made by barbecue at their usual spot beside the Phil Lynott statue on Grafton Street.
“We cook the burgers there and then. We give them what they want on the burger, they look forward to it, they enjoy the burgers, it’s nice for them and they need it,” he says.
The group also collects clothes that they hand out to those who need it.
Bradley acknowledges that the group don’t have a permit for their stall or to cook the food but says that a senior garda at Pearse St garda station spoke to him at the stall previously and told them that what they’re doing is fine within certain limits.
“He came up to my stall and we had a chat for half an hour. We used to shake a bucket to collect donations but he told us to stop that so we stopped that but he told us we could keep doing what we were doing.”
That changed on Saturday when Bradley said that three gardaí approached the March For Homeless volunteers telling them to leave.
The team leader says a number of people on social media wanted to organise a protest outside the garda station on Sunday but that he discouraged that and instead spoke to gardaí himself.
Last night upon reopening the stall they were again told by gardaí to take it down and Bradley was asked to move his van.
A Facebook video later uploaded by the group shows Bradley having his details taken by gardaí. He is also asked about his tax, insurance and DOE on the van he uses to transport their equipment.
Bradley also acknowledges in another video that his van is not taxed and does not have the DOE for commercial vehicles.
“I have insurance I just have no tax because I can’t afford tax, the DOE I can’t afford the DOE. I need the van to travel in an out to help these homeless people,” he says.
Asked about last night’s incident, a spokesperson for An Garda Síochána says that they were called to the spot on Grafton Street where a temporary structure had been set up that had “attracted a significant number of people”
The spokesperson says that the individuals were “in breach of Dublin City Council regulations and were causing a safety concern”.
The spokesperson added that anyone who wishes to help out in such ways should seek the correct permits from Dublin City Council.
Asked whether the group would do so, Bradley says that it depends on where they are placed, adding that he won’t be moved out of the city centre.
“I won’t be going nowhere until they can find me a decent place,” he says.
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