Senator D’Arcy welcomes proposed new legislation on “chuggers”

Fine Gael Senator for Louth, Jim D’Arcy has welcomed the new legislation requiring “chuggers”, a person who approaches passers-by in the street asking for subscriptions or donations to a particular charity, to carry a permit.  

“This is already the case with charities and other groups such as GAA clubs who have collections throughout our towns and villages. The new legislation will simply bring these charity collectors in line with other charitable groups out there. It will also mean that there will be restrictions on collections on certain days, and most importantly for the first time we will have a record of how many people are involved in this industry.

“At present local authorities have no control on the numbers of charity collectors of this style that are on our streets. The new legislation will mean that the courts and the Gardaí will now have the power to award such permits, and ultimately be in control of how many are allowed onto our streets.

“This direct debit style of charity collection is a very intrusive process for our pedestrians, many of whom donate to charities in their own way already. I personally have had to say no to such individuals two to three times on the same street. I fear that this aggressive style of collection is putting people off going to our high streets, as it can be a very intimidating process as you go about your daily business.

“A date has not been set for the implementation but I hope that this will be introduced by the summer. Early indications would seem to show that we could have this introduced within the next three months, the sooner the better.”