SICK INDIVIDUALS TARGET FERMOY CLOTHES BANK
The SVDP clothes bank, located in the Fermoy town car park, has yet again fallen victim to the despicable actions of some very sick individuals. On Tuesday morning last members of the St.Vincent de Paul came, as they usually do, to collect clothes left in the bank. They were both shocked and horrified to discover on opening the bank that amongst the clothes were bags heaving full of vomit and food waste.
As a result the clothes were unusable and had to be disposed of by members of Cork County Council.
The Avondhu spoke with Brendan Dempsey, regional president of Saint Vincent de Paul and asked him if this is a common occurrence in the county.
“This is happening in a couple of places in the Cork region. Our staff that empty the clothes bins have to be extra careful recently as they have found bags of broken glass, vomit - you name it! We then have to pay to have these clothes disposed of in the dump.”
“We made €500k net last year, which was passed on to the people of Cork city and county to help them pay bills, rent, mortgages, to help them to live.”
The Avondhu asked Mr Dempsey if they had looked at having a depot in various towns manned by someone so that clothes could be dropped off and taken in without being tampered with, with the result that they go directly to the charity?
“We can’t dictate where the clothes banks go but we are going to have to seriously re–think on this as it simply can’t go on, ”Brendan Dempsey said.
“We spent €4m last year helping people. This year calls are up 60%, there are people coming into the SVDP offices crying. People with families that can’t afford to feed or house them, people affected by the floods and the insurance companies are not paying out. I have never seen the like of the pressure.
"For the first time in history we have had to offer counselling services to our own staff. That’s how bad things have become. Staff are dealing with a new type of client, one that is in an awful amount of trouble. It breaks my heart then to see that there are individuals out there vandalising our clothes banks at a time when the charity has never needed the clothes more.”
“Last year it cost us €4k alone to replace the padlocks that had been broken by these criminals. That money would have paid at least 8 ESB bills for people, ”Mr Dempsey added.
Fermoy town clerk, Ray Owens told The Avondhu, “This is very annoying, and if we can identify who is doing it we will certainly take further action.”
If you do see any suspicious activity or have any information on the above, please contact the Fermoy garda station on 025-82100.
Published:
Thursday 24th June 6:25pm
