Child begging in Dublin has reached a serious level according to a report released yesterday by Leanbh, a service of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC).
Its first annual report, Protecting Begging Children, highlights the incidence of child begging in Dublin over the last 12 months and is highly critical of the Eastern Health Board's response. Between October 1997 and September 1998, ISPCC staff and volunteers monitored Dublin's streets on a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week basis. The report claims 2,872 sightings of begging incidents. Of these, intervention was made by workers in 2,770, or 96.4 per cent of cases. Nearly one third of the total, 887 incidents, involved children under 10.
The report provides an age profile of begging children, dividing them into five categories. Children under five years numbered 173 cases, with 714 incidents involving children aged six to 10 years. The majority of begging children were between 11 and 15 years old. Those aged 16 and 17 accounted for 253 cases and the age of children in 583 cases was unknown.
Of those incidents, 2,491 involved Traveller children, in 200 cases the child was homeless and 181 incidents involved Romanian children with their parents.
Leanbh estimates that 150 children were frequently begging during the last 12 months. Some 43 per cent, or 65 children, are now engaged in structured therapeutic work. Almost half of these have ceased begging, the report claims.
It estimates that 40 families consistently leave children to beg. Twenty-seven of these families were given structured therapeutic help. Of these, 21 were receiving no service, support or intervention from statutory agencies.
Most children who beg are from a Travelling background, although the vast majority of Travelling families reject child begging. Also included are homeless children who have run away, those supporting a habit or addiction and some refugee children with their parents. All incidents were referred to the Eastern Health Board and the Garda.
The report emphasised begging is not confined to Dublin and is a problem in most urban areas. Not all children are abandoned to beg, some are used in inappropriate activity with their parents, siblings or other adults, says the report.
Children left to beg are deprived of basic human rights such as health, education, protection and basic dignity, it claims.
The ISPCC has called on the Eastern Health Board to regard child begging as a serious concern that warrants reporting, investigation and case management. It also says statutory agencies, such as the health boards, have a duty to protect begging children under the Child Care Act 1991, various school attendance Acts and the proposed Children's Bill. Leanbh is a three-year pilot project staffed by ISPCC professionals and trained volunteers. The Dublin-based initiative is supported in provincial cities and towns by 21 ISPCC workers.