Homeless services and voluntary soup-runs need to be "co-ordinated and managed", the director of Dublin's Regional Homeless Executive has said.

Dublin City Council are drafting a proposed new bylaw to end charitable groups’ ability to set up services, providing mostly hot food, for people queuing on the city’s streets.

The Taoiseach’s Taskforce for Dublin, which was published in October, recommended the introduction of bylaws to regulate these services.

The proposal to ban voluntary on-street soup-runs has been criticised by Dublin-based soup run Friends Helping Friends, who said these services fulfil important needs for rough sleepers.

On Newstalk Breakfast, Dublin's Regional Homeless Executive director Mary Hayes said voluntary street services are "un-coordinated and ad-hoc".

Image: The Liberties Soup Run, Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

"We don’t want to ban food services or voluntary work - this is complimentary to our own work and our own objectives," she said.

"What we want is [for homeless services] to be co-ordinated and managed and that we would have a balance."

Ms Hayes said many of the street services are concentrated in the city centre.

"The other thing [would be to spread] the locations into places that are more dignified for people who are availing of the services – not everything needs to be Dublin City Centre," she said.

Input

Ms Hayes said Dublin's Regional Homeless Executive wants input from voluntary services to shape the new bylaw.

"We’re trying to gather information before we draft the bylaws – we’re consulting with the food groups to see what that might look like," she said.

"That includes things like what time are the services needed? Where should they be? How can they work with the other services out there in partnership?"

Co-ordinated approach

Ms Hayes said she is not "denigrating" the work of volunteer soup kitchens but instead wants a more co-ordinated approach to homeless services in the city centre.

"It would be good for us to work with those services, bring them in more so they understand the full array of what’s there," she said.

"We work closely with the HSE - some of those services have medical services on site.

"We work closely with social protection so people can get their basic income taken care of as well.” 

Ms Hayes said it is "unfortunate" that the narrative surrounding the bylaw has become "polarised".

Feature image shows Muslim Sisters of Eire ford services outside the GPO in Dublin, Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie