Bridget, Eamon and a beautiful animation star in RTÉ's Christmas schedule

@Peter Cavey: I don’t think there is a power of arrest for that or any power to forcibly remove someone from a public street when they aren’t committing a criminal offence.

@Peter Cavey: Yeah let’s arrest all the homeless because they are cold. Get a grip! They are given enough opportunities to seek help

@Ciaran: Thats the law all over Europe in Red weatger warnings. Germany, Austria etc all arrest homeless people for their own safety amd give them shelter for the night.

@Paul: Even for their personal safety? if there is a reasonable chance of death by sleeping rough tonight, are the state’s hands really tied? You can’t just watch someone die

@The Dons: Or maybe they don’t want to get stabbed, robbed etc. in these shelters?

@Peter Cavey: Not arrested perhaps, but definitely detained by police or whoever, for their own safety.

@Peter Cavey: I was being curious. I don’t know if any law that allows for that here

@Father Hody Commody: only way to do that would be using the mental health act I’d say

@Peter Cavey: You are assuming that the guards will actually patrol on a cold night

@Peter Cavey:
Hard as it is to accept, yes you can just watch people die. It happens all the time with people who refuse medical treatment.

@ Peter Cavey there’s a difference between a homeless person and a rough sleeper

@Darren Sheils: They ARE homeless!

@Paul:
You are entirely correct in your assumption.

@Tony O Dwyer: Is it supposed to be a 3rd of the garda on duty at night? where do they be!

@The Big Bad Wolf: why the aggression? The man is suggesting this so that human beings can be safe! Some people need protection from themselves!!

@The Dons:

If they refuse help – that is their right – this is a free country.

Any calls to install a police state and nanny police powers – arresting people making free choices is insane.

@The Dons: ‘a good section’? No 30. Read the article. 30 decline help on this one occasion…stop with the sweeping generalisations!

@The Dons: absolute rubbish! i spoke to one man today who slept rough because unfortunately emergency shelters may have drugs present and he is avoiding that! disgusting to suggest any homeless people do not want or deserve housing

@john Appleseed: Look it’s like this there have been enough warnings. There has been accommodation provided. Homeless services know the homeless people in their area who suffer from mental illness, drug addiction etc and have had the opportunity to try and help them. Personally if it was my son or daughter I would drag them indoors regardless of their wishes. However I don’t think it’s fair that other people should put their own lives in danger to go out into this weather to drag them in. You can bring a horse to water. Sad but true!

@john Appleseed:
It’s a bit condescending to assume that anyone who chooses to sleep rough must be either mentally ill or on drugs.

@Walt Jabsco: can you give us another reason?

@Walt Jabsco: are you for fooking real?

@john Appleseed: so are you suggesting we have the homeless sectioned?

@The Bunk: “Personally if it was my son or daughter I would drag them indoors regardless of their wishes.”

If it was your son or daughter, you probably wouldn’t be sitting at a keyboard writing hateful posts about the homeless.

Isn’t it a good job Fr Peter McVerry was’t born with your mentality.

@Art Smith:
@john Appleseed:
Remember the guy who was murdered sleeping rough in a doorway a few years ago? He owned property and had a large lump sum in the bank.
People can have various personal reasons for sleeping rough – just because it’s incomprehensible to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense to them.

@Art Smith: as hinted to in the article, but not really discussed by FI/PMcV, some rough sleepers have had a very hard time in the cooperative dorms provided via these charities. Talking with some of the rough sleepers who were camping near Milltown, this included not only random extreme violence, but also sexualities assault, rape and threats to their life. If that is your only experience with these services, you have every right to not play along with them. I do think that police should give the option of a cell without arrest or identification during this emergency. Even more so, I wish the government would take responsibility directly for homeless (and by this I always only mean rough sleepers) services, and not outsource it, and huge loss and expense of public money, to charities.

@Art Smith: some people would rather sleep rough ,because some hostels are full of thieves junkies and mentally ill people,, as someone who has been thru many hostels if your not malahide you are taking advantage of, you stick out like a sore thumb

@Tír Eoghain Gael: You’re obviously a bit of a snowflake if you think these are hateful posts. All I’m saying is accommodation has been provided, homeless services are rounding up homeless people to get them indoors. If they refuse to go then I don’t think people should risk their own lives to force them.

@The Bunk:

Do you not think there are perhaps understandable reasons why some may not wish to go to one of these shelters?

If having a degree of compassion for the homeless makes me “a bit of a snowflake”, no problem at all.

You are absolutely disgusting. Yet I still would be fairly certain that if one of your own was out on the streets, you probably wouldn’t be be anonymously positing nonsense on the internet about them. Big fella aren’t you.

@Tír Eoghain Gael: If the want to stay outside let them. Emergency workers should not risk their lives to bring them in after the numerous warnings and accommodation being provided. If one of us ventured out in this weather and people had to come and rescue us we would be ridiculed and rightly so. And let’s not forget you are also sitting behind your laptop posting comments so get off your high horse. And as it happens I have an uncle who avails of homeless services and is an alcoholic. My grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and even me and my cousins have made thousands of attempts and efforts to help him over the last 40 years and we still do but he doesn’t want help. That being said if he refused accommodation in this weather I wouldn’t expect others to risk their lives for him.

@Father Hody Commody: Ive got no political view but I don’t have sympathy for them either, the Irish government has a good social welfare system so there should be no homeless people. I read an article recently, people were not paying for social housing for 8 years. They created thus situation themselves

@Father Hody Commody: I don’t have a political view but I don’t have sympathy for them. Those homeless people created this problem for themselves, chose booze and drugs over paying rent. Found an article recently, people were not paying for social housing up to 8 years.

@Father Hody Commody: Ive got no particular political view but these people have created their own problems. They chose booze and drugs over jobs etc. I’ve read an article recently, it stated that people had become homeless because they weren’t paying the rent for their social housing up to eight years

@James Molloy: would you have more sympathy if you knew anyone the homeless?

@Mark Pa: Could you give a link to that article re “people were not paying for social housing for 8years”& how many?
You are aware that TOTAL housing stock only grew by 0.4% from 2011-2016.The welfare system has nothing to do with available housing stock and that includes social housing!Limited housing stock,tenants&mortgage holders losing their tenancies/homes due to no fault of their own,54% workers earning €30,000& under unable to afford rising rents,very little social housing construction,etc are among the major causes of the Homelessness and Housing Emergencies!

@Mark Pa: i think you have to have an adress to get social welfare payment

@Mark Pa: It’s FF/FG policy to make homelessness the new norm. even more exceptable than smoking in the streets.

@Mark Pa: Eell, you’re a cast iron candidate for FG then.

@Sean Conway: Acceptable

@Mark Pa: great trolling mark, pr1ck

@Mark Pa: A ridiculously generous social welfare system.

@Seán O’Nilbud: As Patty says..judgemental much!

@Walt Jabsco:

Hi Walt…Read what I said. I wasn’t giving a solution nor was I offering one. I honestly don’t have a solution. I was expressing my astonishment at the general lack of compassion for the sick and infirmed. And I was explaining the nature of mental illness, and why it is probably one of the most illusive of all diseases.

All I was saying that instead of people railing against people who are in a downward spiral…perhaps they could see it for the disease it is. And if they can’t…maybe they should not say anything instead of making themselves look like insensitive fools. They are not doing themselves any favours.

My older sister suffers from schizophrenia. Her life has been a downward spiral of self medicating and self destruction because she is not capable of thinking rationally. The combination of medications have been endless…yet they often make her either so lethargic she is paralysed, or even more paranoid. Then she often reverts back to self medicating because it is the only thing that gives her some sort of pain relief. This is the nature of mental illness.

Does having empathy/ sympathy make you feel superior? Is that why you said this?
Why would you say that having empathy makes one feel superior? Is that what having sympathy and/or empathy is called today? I always thought is was just part a natural part of being human.

@Walt Jabsco:
Choosing to stay out in this weather is suicidal behavior. Should people therefore who seem incapable of looking after themselves not be brought to safety against their will.
If a mentally ill person is threatening to commit suicide they can lawfully be committed for their own safety so what’s the difference.
If people die there is an uproar, if people are arrested there is an uproar. In these no win situations ,Someone has to take responsibility and make hard decisions.

@Seán O’Nilbud:

Whhhaaatttt? I was talking to the people who are constantly being judgemental because they look at everything with an obtuse sense of tunnel vision. It is not a good look. And it is always the same people who think they always have all the answers. I did not claim to have any answers. I also did not make any assumptions. I didn’t have to. You and the others who seem to have all the answers are the ones who made all the assumptions. In fact, you are all quite clear where your sensibilities lay. And it isn’t in the understanding or knowledgeable dept. Look…addicts and homeless people obviously bother you. So…do what the govt does…act as if they don’t exist and get on with your day.

You are angry and I am not sure why….but it is misplaced. By your comment to me, you seem to be the one who made assumptions, is showing a lack of understanding, appears dull witted, ignorant, uneducated, and idiotic.

Try thinking and digesting what you read before you speak…it is good for the soul.

But if misplaced angry waffling is what blows
your Twinkie…..knock yourself out.

@Patty Cullinane:
From your own post:
“A little compassion is in order. Try it. It’s good for the soul”.
Isn’t that trying to be superior over whoever you were responding to?

My point was that compassion and empathy are all well and good but do not provide an immediate practical solution for those who plan to sleep rough tonight.

I don’t know what the answer is either, but I don’t want to live in a society where anyone can be arbitrarily picked up off the streets and detained against their wishes because they march to a different drum from most people.

@Aine O Connor:
The bar is actually very high for involuntary committing someone to an institution, even if they’re self-harming.

@Walt Jabsco:

Walt,Walt,Walt…firstly….I wasn’t responding to anyone specifically. It was a general comment about so many other general comments . Go back and have a look. No…I wasn’t being superior. I was illustrating my lack of understanding of so many of the toxic comments on this subject…not unlike the toxic comments on other topics, that you are well aware of. And these types of comments usually come from a place of fear and ignorance. My thinking is that instead of saying things that are mean….have a little compassion and be thankful it’s not you. And yes…understanding and compassion and empathy is good for the soul. That is just common sense. It everyone flexed these muscles more…they would be better off. I am not saying anger is a bad thing….but misplaced anger is a bad thing.

Again…I never claimed to have a solution. I do not know what the solution to mental illness/addiction is. I wish I did. I never gave an opinion one way or the other about arbitrarily picking people up off the streets and draining them. I agree….probably not a good precedent to set.

Compassion and empathy and sympathy are a start, but obviously not the solution. But neither is the vitriolic blame game that so many seem fond of.

@Patty Cullinane: well said , dont mind walt ,he,s much to much ,much to stupid , he,s living in a ghost town

@Patty Cullinane: Excellent posts like yours don’t suit some people.

@Canspell Somtimes:
Oh the irony.

@Walt Jabsco:
And we all know that there has been enormous tragedies because family members and concerned members of the public were not listened to.
Sometimes hard decisions are the right ones.

@Walt Jabsco: you need to look in the, Mirror in the bathroom

@Aine O Connor:
The bar is set very high for a reason – if it’s too low it means that a great many people could be detained unnecessarily against their wishes, not to mention the system being open to potential abuse from other family members etc..
It’s certainly not a perfect system and tragedies have indeed occurred where suicidal people haven’t been committed to a psychiatric institution, but I’d hate to live in a society where an individual could be locked away in an institution just because someone else claims they’re suicidal.

@Nuala Mc Namara: Official number is 30. Chicago has 2.7 million, approx twice Dublin. Homelessness in sub zero on streets is 82000. You have to be on streets to be homeless in Chicago. We have no crisis. You do research.

@Ciara Baines: Plenty of genuine homeless on streets? We have 30 in 1.5 million. I would love it to be 0. This to me is genuine number of homeless. How do you think we compare with Chicago? And yes there are any amount of single mothers exploiting the system. They would be well able to keep their legs together if they thought they would not get a free house.

@Gearoid De Burca: Somebody please put up a logical arguement. A fella for example.

@Gearoid De Burca: ‘We have 30 in 1.5 million’? Wrong. Read the article again. The 30 mentioned are the people that chose to stay on the streets. That’s not the total number of people sleeping rough on our streets but you’d know that if you bothered to read before commenting. As for your comments about single mothers, you’re disgusting. Your own mother would be proud.

@Gearoid De Burca: Haha asking someone to post a logical argument when you can’t even get your own warped point right. ‘A fella for example’? Again shows your attitude towards women in general.

@Gearoid De Burca: Same reply to you as before!You do realise that the majority of the homeless on streets in Dublin were accommodated in Emergency shelters,the 30 homeless you mention did not avail of the temporary emergency accommodation!
Europe has a European Typology of Homelessness and Housing Exclusion re Categories of homeless developed by the EU Federation of National Organisations working with homeless in 2005.Of the 7Categories of ETHOS Light,Ireland just uses 3/7 Categories unlike other European countries.
Eoin O Sullivan research with European countries using similar Categories found that Ireland had the highest rate of homelessness!
So unlike you,I have done my research & those are just examples!

@Gearoid De Burca: Oh and by the way, you might want to track back on your ‘official number is 30′ comment. Nothing official about that number at all.

@Gearoid De Burca: There is no logical argument for factually incorrect comments like yours…from either men or women!

@Nuala Mc Namara: 30 sleep on street out of 1.5 million is factually correct. More houses were refused last year than would house the homeless is factually correct. Women read more fiction than men is factually correct.

@Ciara Baines: Wel make the number 60. Still a little shy of 41000 which would equate with Chicago.

@Gearoid De Burca: Actually you mustn’t have looked up the definition of the figure of 82,000 re ” Homelessness in sub zero on streets is 82,000″ re Chicago!
According to Chicago Coalition for the Homeless analysis :April’17 :82% of the 82,212 Homeless are homeless residents living doubled up in the homes of others due to hardship & often in overcrowded conditions!
Ireland does NOT include these Categories of homeless,in fact Ireland only uses 3/7Categories of the European ETHOS Light Categories so Ireland excludes 4/7Categories including the “doubled up”Categories Chicago uses!
So I hand you back your arguments in tatters!

@Nuala Mc Namara: Also for the city of Chicago itself there there were 46,425 homeless:78% of those were ” doubled up” as described above!
Again your arguments in tatters!

@Nuala Mc Namara: even if u are correct which u never will be, figures amount to 9000 v 30. I think you are simple.

@Gearoid De Burca: I’ simply 100% correct!
Chicago City has unsheltered homeless figure of 1561 in 2017 with a population of 2.7m while Dublin CITY has population of over 553,500 with had according to IT in Nov2017 “234 were unable to access emergency beds”.
I also told you that extra emergency temporary beds provided re these severe weather conditions for those unsheltered homeless that took up the beds BUT these are just TEMPORARY.

@HelloGoogleTracking: The main condition for human freedom is reason. Assuming people who refuse help in these conditions are limited in regards to reason there has to be a point where the state steps in. Furthermore, as Paddy pointed out, other people will have to place themselves in harms way to ensure the safety of those who refuse a bed.

We aren’t talking about the suspension of haebeus corpus, we are talking about someone stepping in and making a decision for very vulnerable people who are incapable of making that decision for themselves, for whatever reason.

Im sure section 8 of the criminal justice act would suffice in justifying arrest, and then have the charges dropped the next day.

@Tony Dowling:Ah bless,poor you!Makes uncomfortable viewing ,does it?

@Ciara Baines: if they hate being there, why are they turning down accomodation