'Foreign national friends back sleeping in doorways' says Offaly Councillor

AT a recent meeting of the joint policing committee held at Aras an Chontae, Councillor Ken Smollen referred to people sleeping in doorways in Tullamore.

Councillor Smollen said he noted that ''our foreign national friends are back again sleeping in doorways, specifically Boots doorway. There could be four or five of them sleeping there at night time. Not every night but some nights of the week. I'm just wondering if they have ever been spoken to. I just noticed that they have a bucket, that they are looking for people to donate money. I don't know whether they are intimidating people or not but from previous experience they weren't very pleasant to people passing by,'' said Cllr Smollen.

Responding, Superintendent Eamon Curley said he wasn't familiar with the issue, but he would look into it.

''We have facilities to assist the homeless and we have facilities to integrate and assist people from different ethnic minorities and groups. We will certainly look into it,'' he said.