Begging verdict: case raises key issues

Like hundreds of people each year, Niall Dillon had been arrested for begging on the streets under laws stretching back 160 years.

The former college student (33), originally from south Co Dublin, fell into the rough-and-tumble world of homelessness and begging after a number of personal problems.

When he was picked up by gardaí, he seemed destined to be just another of the estimated 750 people charged under the Act each year.

(Most are not convicted with the maximum one-month sentence. They are likely to receive a probation order, although a total of 75 people received convictions under the Act in 2005, the latest year for which figures are available.)

However, his successful constitutional challenge to Section 3 of the Vagrancy (Ireland) Act of 1847 strikes down the most commonly used law to arrest beggars. Gardaí still have considerable powers to tackle begging through public order legislation and the Children's Act, which outlaws people using children to beg.

However, Mr Dillon's case highlights the issue of whether people involved in the peaceful activity of begging with a paper cup should be criminalised. "The legislation didn't make any distinction between aggressive begging and the passive act of begging," says Áine Flynn of Terence Lyons & Co Solicitors, who acted for Mr Dillon.

"Maybe any new legislation can make this distinction, along with dealing with the broader social issues that this raises."

It's a sentiment shared by organisations providing services to homeless people.

"Criminalising people isn't the way forward," says Caroline McGrath, Focus Ireland's director of advocacy. "They need an engagement in terms of support and access to services which can help them to address their needs."