This article is from page 6 of the 2013-05-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
THERE have been calls for a ‘wet’ hostel to be set up in Ennis to help alcoholics.
Ennis councillor Paul O’Shea says the need for such a service, as Ennis can’t keep “exporting” people with alcohol problems to Limerick and Galway.
Wet hostels provide shelter for street drinkers while allowing them to continue to consume alcohol on the premises, unlike other homeless hostels that enforce abstinence. Cllr O’Shea said there are 324 people waiting on the local authority-housing list that are presenting as homeless.
He said a growing number of young people are ending up homeless caused by drink related problems. Speaking at the May meeting of Ennis Town Council, he said, “We don’t have wet hostels in Clare but we have Clare people that are using them in Limerick and Galway.
Councillors were discussing issues raised by the death of Czech national Josef Pavelka (52) who died on the streets of Ennis earlier this month.
His plight came to national attention when District Court Judge Patrick Durcan described as a “scandal” the fact that Mr Pavelka had spent tie living in a toilet.
On Wednesday, Ennis Town Council again insisted that it had no evidence that Mr Pavelka or his Polish friend Piotr Baram (36) had been living in the toilet.
Town manager Ger Dollard said the council never received a report that people were sleeping in the town’s two public toilets. He said, “It doesn’t seem plausible” that the men were sleeping in the toilets. Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Peter Considine (FF) said he had sympathies for Mr Pavelka’s family. He said the story was “badly handled and a bad representation of the town of Ennis”. He said he was “very doubtful” the men had slept in the toilets as the doors open at 20minute intervals. He said the fact that Mr Pavelka had no access to services after his recent surgery was “shameful”. However, Cllr Considine added, “You can’t help people that don’t want to help themselves.”
Cllr Mary Howard described the men as “lovely craters”. “At the end of the day, he’s somebody’s son, somebody’s brother.”
Business man Kevin Keenan who runs, Formacompany.ie on O’Connell Street, said businesses had experienced problems because of people drinking in the area.
He said, “I wouldn’t wish what happened on that man to anyone. Its not they’re fault they’re alcoholics. But people are feeding their habit. They are stopping on the street to give them money. If you knew someone with a heroin habit you wouldn’t go and buy them heroin.”
Mr Keenan says he has noticed an increase in the number of people drinking in the area. “There was an Irish contingent that caused a lot of bother. They were gone for a while and now they are back. There is so such goodwill out there that people are milking it.”