Have you got spare change?

MIN2511 · 22-09-2008 9:42pm #1

I just want to know people's take on this... I am not categorising any nationality, but when you see beggars who ask for spare change

Do you give change if you have?
Are you disgusted?
Do you feel pity?
If somebody got on the bus and were short of change would you give them the difference?
Sometimes when people walk up to you on the street and ask for change, do you fob them off or do you hand them spare change

What is your general take on begging on the streets...

Tbh, i saw a program ages ago about beggars making 33k a yearr(TAX FREE) i find it hard to believe they actually make such money.

Varkov · 22-09-2008 9:43pm

I only give money to white beggers.
Out of principle.

R0ot · 22-09-2008 9:46pm

Some lad asked me for 70c in Connolly station there at the weekend, i'm not in dublin or many cities on a regular basis didn't know what to expect when you lad walked up to me, had 2 euro I wasn't using or needed so gave it to him. :pac:

22-09-2008 9:46pm

I really am divided with myself on this subject, for one, I know it's wrong, but I would be racist on this subject (I apologise, it's not intentional and not in any other situtation) I would not give money to people who harrass me for it, but at night when I'm in town and see people sleeping on the streets, I would give them my last penny and go to the bank machine again, I am pretty sure there are some people making a good profit out of this but I can't believe for a second that they would be in the majority.

rotinaj · 22-09-2008 9:47pm

I cant stand begin asked. i bearly have enough to get trough the month so what makes them think I should just hand it over.:mad:

IRISH RAIL · 22-09-2008 9:47pm

had 2 euro I wasn't using or needed so gave it to him.

if you have anymore money lying round that youre not using could you pm me youre adress ill pop round and get it

Cadyboo · 22-09-2008 9:48pm

Friend of mine worked in an O Briens in Dublin. A little old lady used to beg outside and at the end of the day, would come in to change her "earnings" to notes... And she would make about two to three hundred a day!!!

I, myself would give it to people who dont pester you for money, or I would buy them something to eat.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 22-09-2008 9:48pm

chaaaaaannnnggee??

cchhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaange?

CHAAAAAAAANNNNNNNGGGEEEE?

thetyreman · 22-09-2008 9:50pm

was in a pub on saturday night and a lad (well jared)asked me at the bar,
GIVE US A EURO FOR A PINT,so i gave him 2euro,and told him to get me one aswell...................

Sharpshooter · 22-09-2008 9:50pm

l dont have a problem giving them money, there but for the grace of God and all that.
l've often made up the difference in a shop if someone was short of some change.
But to be honest , if l think that they are going to pass the money on to whoever has them begging for them , then l don't give any.

Kiera · 22-09-2008 9:50pm

It really depends on my mood and how bad they look like they need it. If they are pissed then no i walk on.

I will not give money to those feckers who sit at the ATM. That crap does my head in. Like i'm gonna give him €20 :rolleyes:

Run_to_da_hills · 22-09-2008 9:50pm

You should only give change to those poor guys on crutches with paper cups that hang about the M50 slip ramps.

MIN2511 · 22-09-2008 9:53pm

Last year i was walking home, a woman approached me this is around Sth Richmond St. She told me she had no money to feed her kids, and no money for their lunch the next day. I was so sad i didn't have any money on me, i gave her the tenner i had. While giving her the money, i smelt her breadth and it stank of alcohol. Too late to take my money back, i was so disgusted that she would lie to that extent to get money off a total stranger...
Fast forward 3 months after that, she approached me again in the same area and asked for spare change and used the same story... I told her to feck off!

Handsome Bob · 22-09-2008 9:53pm

I give beggars change if I have plenty of coins, what am I going to do with bum sheckles anyway.:pac::p

I have no problem with them, people who stop me on the street asking me for my bank details on the other hand, grrrrrrrrrrr.......

monkeyfudge · 22-09-2008 10:00pm

All depends on my mood and their attitude.

I'm glad I don't have to get the Luas too often as they guys begging at the ticket machines seem like right aggressive pricks.

22-09-2008 10:01pm

I saw a man sitting outside my job a few days in a row, not really bothering anyone but maybe asking the odd person for change, he was picking up cigarette butts from the ground and trying to get a drag off them, I went into the shop and bought him a brekkie roll and 20 john player blue, the man nearly cried when he saw the ciggies which, in turn, made me nearly cry, he was so appreciative. God, imagine you were in that situation, it's horrible. I think sometimes you can tell the difference between the genuines and the chancers - but maybe I'm just naive......

SnowMonkey · 22-09-2008 10:02pm

If somebody got on the bus and were short of change would you give them the difference

I dont think that beging i remeber i was 2 euros shore for my lunch and the gu behinde me handed me two euros.... i think that was a desent thing to do...

I wwas walkin along blanch shoping center it was a heavy rain day and was socked to the skin so was i for that matter and i noded he said allright so did I and asked cpould he burrow 2 euros and i gave it with out a hesitation.. the other day a black guy walked over to me in blanch again and asked me for mponey for a bus yet he had a tk max shoping bag in his hand:rolleyes:.....

but it was sunny

How ever if im havu ng a cup of coffe with a bird and some begger walks over and asks for money that really piss's me of....

dsmythy · 22-09-2008 10:03pm

Never give, never ashamed of it, because i give direct to homeless charities instead.

22-09-2008 10:06pm

dsmythy wrote: »

Never give, never ashamed of it, because i give direct to homeless charities instead.

Well I am all for homeless charities, Simon Community in particular

gurramok · 22-09-2008 10:08pm

monkeyfudge wrote: »

All depends on my mood and their attitude.

I'm glad I don't have to get the Luas too often as they guys begging at the ticket machines seem like right aggressive pricks.

Next time, spot them hanging around the Luas machines on Lwr Abbey st. Both blokes Irish, one tall bloke in grey clothing and another in his 40's wearing a cap, they must make a fortune there offering their 'services' on how to work the Luas machines which is near harassment!
Also, 2 foreign kids aged about 12 dressed in good clothing always hang around the various machines in town on the Luas line, friendly but in your face begging unlike the dudes above which is harassment.

22-09-2008 10:08pm

Nobody needs to beg in this country. We have moe than adequate social welfare provisions.
I despise beggers.

mikemac · 22-09-2008 10:08pm

I get this a lot when I've leaving work.
I just point them to the social welfare office across the road

"I pay money to the goverment so they can give it to you"

When you pay 41% tax, you owe nothing to anyone, you're already doing your bit.

22-09-2008 10:11pm

Moonbaby wrote: »

Nobody needs to beg in this country. We have moe than adequate social welfare provisions.
I despise beggers.

If only that were true, you can't claim social welfare without a pps number which you can't have without an address.........

MIN2511 · 22-09-2008 10:15pm

dsmythy wrote: »

Never give, never ashamed of it, because i give direct to homeless charities instead.

I used to do the Concern €7 per month, i also volunteered in Oxfam but tbh i don't see the money going to the poor so i stopped.

I also calculated that the lads who work for charities get paid between 9-12 euro per hour... to me it doesn't add up..

Trojan911 · 22-09-2008 10:21pm

MIN2511 wrote: »

Do you give change if you have?

No, never. I have gone & bought a sambo & takeaway tea & given it. Giving money, to me, means they will go & buy drink or drugs when they have enough.

Gazza22 · 22-09-2008 10:23pm

I won't give any money to those scumbags that hang around Luas stations ect resorting to pestering you for change. I can't stand people who sit at ATM's either.

If i'm out late at night and i see somebody sleeping rough on the streets i do give money from time to time because i know they are genuine and not the type that collect a load of money until the evening then head off home after a hard day's begging!

MIN2511 wrote: »

Last year i was walking home, a woman approached me this is around Sth Richmond St. She told me she had no money to feed her kids....

About 2 years ago i was stopped by a woman in her 30's near O'Connell St. on a very cold night around 11pm. She had her two young children around 5/6 year's old with her and she asked me did i have any change as she had little money to feed her kids and they were staying in a hostel. I was a bit annoyed at first that she had those kids out with her so late begging but then she told me that she was Hungarian and came to Ireland to start a new life but she cannot get a job and the savings she had were almost gone.

I was deeply saddened by this woman and i don't think to this day that it was a scam because she seemed highly embarrassed and looked as if she had lived a very hard life. She was also very well spoken ect. I gave her 15e which was all i had on me. I figured that if things were so bad in her life for whatever reason that she was putting herself and her children through this so late at night, that a simple 15e meant nothing to me.

Blush_01 · 22-09-2008 10:42pm

To be honest, I so rarely carry more than €2 in bus change on me that it's a bit pointless asking me for cash on the streets. There's one young guy who always begs at the Luas stops in town, particularly at Jervis, saying he's trying to get back to Newbridge. He's a young guy, about 16, I felt really sorry for him the first time. At the time I was out of work but I had €5 on me I'd intended to buy lunch with. I gave it to him as I had my luas and train tickets. I was livid when I saw him the next time. At the same time, there was a guy with very bad English in Heuston at one stage and he had lost his ticket. I felt so bad for him that I went to the ATM to get cash for him. I'm in Heuston fairly regularly and I've never seen him since.

If I saw someone short for change on a bus, in a shop etc. and if I had change then sure, I'd hand it over.

It's hard not to become hardened against people, but at the same time you'd hate to think of someone being stuck.

Mossy Monk · 22-09-2008 10:45pm

I give them nothing.

Trojan911 · 22-09-2008 10:50pm

Blush_01 wrote: »

There's one young guy who always begs at the Luas stops in town, particularly at Jervis, saying he's trying to get back to Newbridge.

TBH, the majority say that to scam a person. They will normally show you the change they have to, make it look as if they are genuine, then they sometimes ask for your address saying they will post what they owe on to you.

Never give out your address as they know when you are not at home, and if you do then low & behold you get home one day & find your entire collection of Westlife CD's nicked & the rest.....

phantom_lord · 22-09-2008 11:05pm

MIN2511 wrote: »

What is your general take on begging on the streets...

I tell them to go to California.

SantryRed · 22-09-2008 11:13pm

R0ot wrote: »

Some lad asked me for 70c in Connolly station there at the weekend, i'm not in dublin or many cities on a regular basis didn't know what to expect when you lad walked up to me, had 2 euro I wasn't using or needed so gave it to him. :pac:

Had the exact same person probably at Connolly, always seems to be there. I've told him a good few times to fcuk off.

Have you got spare change?

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