The mooted ban on church gate collections in parishes across the south side of the city will not now come into force.
Fr Teddy O’Sullivan, parish priest in Douglas, confirmed today there would be no ban put in place on the collections outside churches.
Priests from across the south side of the city revealed the outcome of the recent public ballot at a meeting of the South City Deanery yesterday.
It is understood the results were split evenly between those who wanted a ban and those who wanted the status quo to remain in place. Because of this, a decision was taken not to put the ban in place.
Fr O’Sullivan previously said the idea for the ban came about out of concern among priests for their parishioners who, he said, were left feeling “harassed” as they made their way to Mass.
The priest said this was due to having to pass as many as three different charity collections at a time, when people were struggling financially.
Fr James O’Donovan, parish priest in Ballinlough, said there would be no ban on collections in his area, but would not comment further.
Fr Michael Murphy, a priest in Ballyphehane, said the parish didn’t hold any vote as the issue had been dealt with in Ballyphehane a long time ago with upcoming collections flagged in the weekly newsletter.
“It can be embarrassing to pass a friend who is collecting when you don’t have the money for them because of the times we live in. These groups do fabulous work, which we want to support, but we also want to keep in mind that people are suffering from poverty at present,” he said.
A number of charities had urged Mass-goers not to support the ban on collections and warned of the detrimental impact it would have on their fund-raising abilities.
These included the Cork Deaf Association, Irish Heart Foundation and the epilepsy support group Brainwave.
Gerrie O’Grady, of the Cork Deaf Association, said: “Since we heard about this on Good Friday we have been on tenterhooks. It would have been a devastating blow for us. We would like to thank those who voted in favour of the collections and have given us the support to continue to provide services for the deaf and hard-of-hearing in Cork.”