A man who helped to distribute
more than 3,000 Christmas food parcels to people in Dublin on Thursday
has warned that the city’s poorest are going to get poorer.
Capuchin Brother Kevin Crowley
urged the Government to do something to help those who are struggling
and to get the homeless off the streets for good rather than just for
Christmas.
He was speaking after thousands of
people queued for hours at the Capuchin Centre on Bow Street to collect
Christmas food parcels. The food parcels contain basic necessities
along with some extras such as sweets for Christmas.
“It is absolutely disgraceful that
in 2016 we are still having people queuing for food, that was to be
expected in 1916,” Brother Crowley told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
“It is appalling to see families come here for a food parcel and then go back to a hotel.”
He said a child had asked him if Santa would know where he was for Christmas because he and his family were living in a hotel.
Brother Crowley added that the
annual running costs for the Capuchin Centre which provides food parcels
every Wednesday were €3.3million with €450,000 of this coming from the
Government.
He said he admired what activists
from the Home Sweet Home group, who took charge of the vacant Apollo
House office building in Dublin 2 with a view to offering accommodation
to the homeless, were doing.
The High Court ruled on Wednesday
that the building could continue operating as a homeless shelter until
noon on January 11th, as long as there was no more than 40 people
staying there each night and the receivers, Mazars, could access the
building.
“It is getting worse because
people are living in poorer conditions and are finding it more and more
difficult to make ends meet...The situation is going to get worse. The
poorest will get poorer,” Brother Kevin added.
Each person who queued for a
parcel on Thursday had a ticket entitling them to two blue plastic bags
of food – one of non-perishables including tea, sugar, cereals, tinned
fish, tinned beans, custard, chocolates and biscuits, and one of such
perishables as milk, cheese, a chicken and butter.