Dublin City Council says it doesn’t plan to ban soup runs, just regulate them

Outside the GPO on O’Connell Street on Friday evening, around 90 people are lined up.

The queue starts in front of the Cú Chulainn statue, and runs to the end of the building on Henry Street.

People stand alone or in pairs. Some carry sleeping bags and rucksacks, others hold shopping bags.

Towards the front of the queue, people chat in groups and a man is drinking a bottle of Bulmers. Women with small children join the line at the front.

Volunteers with the Muslim Sisters of Éire, a charity, hurry as they lay out tables with white tablecloths, and then fruit, sandwiches, pastries and more.

Exactly what Dublin City Council has planned for soup runs such as this has been the subject of much debate and confusion in the last couple of weeks, with some media reporting a plan to ban them.

That’s not what is planned, a spokesperson for Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) has said.

Rather, the council has been working for years on new bye-laws to regulate soup runs like this, restricting where they can set up, and ensuring compliance with food safety rules and other requirements.

Still, some of the people waiting in line for food outside the GPO on Friday night said they see that plan to regulate soup runs as overreach.

Three people chatting near the top of the queue say that they are aware of this plan, which may discourage some food services from operating. And they disagree with the move, they said.

“They’re a disgrace,” says Joey Malone. “People rely on these services because of the cost of food.”

Local shops in the inner-city that used to offer good value have recently raised prices, he says, shaking his head. “It just keeps going up and up.”

“The length of that queue shows how bad it is,” says John Coughlan, pointing at the line of people behind him, which is now winding around the corner of the GPO onto Henry Street.

Many soup runs also hand out essentials to people sleeping rough, including dry clothes and sleeping bags. The council should focus on doing that too, says Coughlan.

At the Dublin City Council monthly meeting on Monday night, some councillors said that they backed greater regulations if that comes with help for food providers to meet those requirements – but they wouldn’t back a ban.

Meanwhile, outside of City Hall on Monday night, protesters were gathered to fight a ban on soup runs they had heard was in the works.

Any new bye-laws would have to go out to public consultation and be voted on by councillors before the changes go live.

At risk?

The Taoiseach’s Dublin City Taskforce Report, published in October last year, raised concerns that homeless and drug services were concentrated in the inner-city.

One response, it said, should be for the council to bring in new bye-laws to regulate on-street food services, also known as soup runs.

Dublin City Council had already been working on that. A consultant’s review in 2021 had recommended, among other things, that the council introduce a licence system for on-street services providing food, toiletries, and clothes to people who are homeless.

More details of council plans came out in July 2023.

In a presentation to councillors on the housing committee, council officials proposed that new bye-laws include a permit system to regulate food safety, a requirement that groups running soup runs have charity status, and designated spots and limited operating hours.

The council is still working towards that permit system, says a spokesperson for the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE), which manages homeless services for the four Dublin local authorities.

The DRHE is engaging groups that operate soup runs in a consultation process, which it hopes to conclude this summer, she said. “The draft bye-laws are not prohibiting these activities but ensuring they are provided in a safe environment for both operators and users of the service.”

The taskforce report last October criticised the current model of on-street food delivery, saying it “risks the privacy, dignity and the safety of people using the service, attracts anti-social behaviour and drug dealing and degrades the public realm”.

On O’Connell Street on Friday evening, Marion Hoey, also in the queue outside the GPO, rejected the idea that queuing up for food on the street is unsafe.

But Hoey says her son is long-term homeless and was a victim of a serious assault in a hostel.“The hostels are not safe,” she says. “That needs to be investigated.”

The council and the government should focus their attention on housing the long-term homeless, says Hoey. “Accommodation first,” she says. “That is obvious really.”

Coughlan says he is not concerned about dignity or safety while queuing for food, but is worried about the welfare of people sleeping rough in cold weather. “People sleeping rough should be the priority.”

He said he also thinks that the government should stop wasting money on “stupid things”, like the Millennium Spire.

Lorraine O’Connor, founder of Muslim Sisters of Éire, which was handing out the food everyone was queuing up for, says they are “a registered HSE soup run”.

O’Connor says the volunteer-led charity hands out food outside the GPO every Friday evening. Their volunteers are Garda-vetted and have done food-safety training, she said.

Some have done Tusla training, and at least one volunteer trained in first-aid is on each shift, she said.

O’Connor says she is curious as to what the council is proposing for soup runs that are fully compliant with all regulations to continue their work.

If the council offers an indoor premises in the O’Connell Street area, she will assess whether it’s suitable, she says.

Dublin City Council is holding meetings with volunteers from soup runs, she says.

Offering more indoors

Dublin City Council says that soup runs which meet the regulations will be able to continue to offer services at set times and in a designated location, through a permit system.

But Dublin City Council director of services Karl Mitchell told the Irish Times recently that he wants to see food services delivered indoors because the street was “not the right place”.

Any new bye-laws would be complemented by an increase in indoor services, he said.

Mitchell is quoted as saying: “We know that these are well-meaning people, doing this for the right reasons, but what’s really needed is better day services, to give people a more dignified response, indoors, where professional help can be on-hand if someone is having a crisis moment.”

At least four charities already serve free meals in Dublin city centre from indoor premises, often called day centres.

Two of the bigger ones, Merchants Quay Ireland and the Capuchin Day Centre, close in the evenings.

Hoey, standing in the queue at the GPO, says more indoor food services in the evening would be welcome. The Light House on Pearse Street is open in the evenings, she says.

Louisa Santoro, CEO of the Mendicity Institution, a registered charity, says the organisation – which is usually open during the day – recently extended its opening time to 10:30pm with funding from the Department of Integration.

Replacement services should be put in place prior to restricting soup runs, says Santoro, who is in favour of regulation.

As well as opening more indoor food centres, the council should consider rolling out food banks, says Santoro.

Some soup runs also give out tents, dry clothes and sleeping bags to people sleeping on the streets.

“I wouldn’t go out without sleeping bags,” says Keira Gill, founder of A Lending Hand volunteer group, by phone on Friday. The group heads out from 9:30pm to reach those sleeping rough, she says.

The biggest problems on the streets late at night is trying to access beds and trying to help people with severe mental-health issues, including psychosis, says Gill.

“We are so needed out there,” she says. “More people would die if we weren’t there.”

A spokesperson for the DRHE said its outreach services distribute sleeping bags. “The DRHE funds a number of food day/evening services as well providing food in all homeless services,” she says.

The Department of Integration funds a service to give sleeping bags to asylum seekers at risk of rough sleeping, she said.

Gill, from A Lending Hand, says she agrees that some regulation is needed because people could pose as soup runs to collect money fraudulently.

But, she says, the regulations should be designed to help genuine volunteer groups, not to deter them. “Don’t make it impossible to get permits,” she says.

Gill says she has been trying to register A Lending Hand as a charity since 2016 and has encountered long delays on the part of the Charities Regulator.

Not a ban

After media reports suggested that the council was looking to ban soup runs, a group called Food Not Bombs organised a protest outside City Hall before the full council meeting on Monday.

Around 150 volunteers and their supporters gathered outside, with free food set out on a table. “Food for people not for profit,” they chanted.

Inside City Hall, councillors from Labour, People Before Profit and Sinn Féin proposed three separate emergency motions to clarify the proposals for the bye-laws and to oppose any ban on soup runs.

The Lord Mayor, Fine Gael Councillor Emma Blain, said the motions didn’t meet the criteria for getting emergency motions onto the agenda. So they weren’t officially tabled and voted on.

But Blain agreed to allow a discussion on the issue as part of the meeting.

Councillors said at the meeting that the council is not banning soup runs, and that the council should work with the soup runs to help them to meet the standards required.

Several councillors complained about “misinformation” in the media, with reports implying a blanket ban rather than greater regulation.

The council housing manager, Mick Mulhern, said that the DRHE-commissioned report in 2021 had noted that most people availing of food services were not homeless and recommended a licensing system to strengthen standards, including for food safety.

Engagement is ongoing with the soup runs, said Mulhern. Only after that consultation is finished will council officials draft the bye-laws, he said.

And after that, those draft bye-laws will go to the council’s housing committee for discussion, said Mulhern.

That will be followed by a public consultation before a final vote on the bye-laws by councillors. “The final decision will ultimately rest with the council in due course,” said Mulhern.

Councillors thanked the volunteers who run soup runs in their own time and reiterated that the new rules should assist genuine groups to continue providing those services.

Fine Gael Councillor Colm O’Rourke said he was involved in soup runs as a student and he supports regulations to ensure that food-safety standards are met.

“This is not about stopping services, it is about improving them,” said O’Rourke. “If it was stopped it would be a disgrace.”

Several councillors said that food poverty is a major issue and regardless of whether the people in the queues are homeless, they need food.

“People wouldn’t be queuing in the cold in the dark unless they needed those services,” said Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan.

Sinn Féin won’t back the new bye-laws unless they are designed to support the soup runs and the people they serve, he says.

The council should examine the quality of food in the private hostels it funds, said Doolan. “Taxpayers’ money is providing food that I certainly wouldn’t be eating every day.”

People Before Profit Councillor Conor Reddy said that the poor quality of food provided in state-funded private hostels is driving demand for soup runs. “It’s shocking and drives the need for these voluntary on-street services.”

Reddy rejected the methodology employed in the 2021 DRHE report, as it consulted four soup runs and no service users, he said.

Mulhern, the council manager, said the food provided in private hostels meets standards and that the DRHE receives few complaints.

If councillors have concerns about particular hostels, they should inform the DRHE, he said.

Green Party Councillor Janet Horner said regulations are needed for homeless services, for safeguarding, child-protection and food-safety. “We are not looking to shut down services. That has been misconveyed,” said Horner.

Independent Councillor Cieran Perry said that a lot of soup-run volunteers he knows support some regulation. “The genuine ones want a proper system that will protect them and protect the people using them.”

A permit system could work, says Perry, but the requirement to register with the Charities Regulator may prove onerous for some groups.