Cork's Lord Mayor has said she does not "feel safe" walking the streets of the city at night due to an increase in assaults and anti-social activity.
Lord Mayor Deirdre Forde spoke on RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime, calling for increased garda resources to be rolled out as part of "public safety measures" in Cork City.
"There isn't a woman in Ireland that doesn't feel that way depending on the day or hour that they are out," she told presenter Cormac Ó hEadhra.
While not wanting to stigmatise certain areas by naming them specifically, Lord Mayor Forde said certain parts of the city centre were particularly bad at night.
Pushing back, Cormac said he found that hard to believe as he felt that Cork City Council and businesses have done a great job at making the centre pedestrian-friendly and easy to sit out in.
"On a recent visit, I didn't see anything bad at all. Did you have a bad experience," he asked Lord Mayor Forde.
She said she wouldn't be easily intimated, however, she is reflecting some of what she is seeing and hearing, adding that there are less gardaí in the city compared to last year.
The Fine Gael elected representative cited an incident she was told whereby a bouncer was assaulted in a city shop at 9pm. "There have been a few knife crime incidents in the city centre and elsewhere," she added.
Cormac asked if anti-social behaviour is a big issue in Cork City.
"Drinking in the streets, drug taking, and the selling of drugs openly are all taking place," she said, adding that the resources of gardaí in Cork are stretched.
One texter into the programme said: "We had been to Cork last year, and the best thing about it, was the exit.
Another, from Terenure said: "I live in Dublin, but was in Cork last year. I couldn't believe the number of poor unfortunate homeless who were addicted to narcotics."
"I felt very unsafe and thought Dublin was bad," he added.
One more refuted the Lord Mayor's claims saying "for the amount of people there, Cork is relatively safe."
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