Anti-social behaviour, such as aggressive begging, has left Cork City centre "unrecognisable", a local councillor has said.
Aggressive begging involves harassment, intimidation, assault threats or obstruction.
Cllr Shane O'Callaghan wants to see the an increase to sentences for a number of offences - including threatening behaviour in a public place, intoxication in a public place and aggressive begging.
Cllr O'Callaghan said there is actually no custodial sentence for intoxication in a public place and the maximum punishment is a fine.
On aggressive begging, he told The Hard Shoulder he wants to see the maximum sentence increase from one month to one year imprisonment.
"Cork City centre is the the heart of our city and our county," he said.
"It's somewhere where local people and tourists should enjoy going to visit and - at a bare minimum - it's a place where people should be able to free feel safe.
"Over the last number of years, Cork City centre has become unrecognisable due to anti-social behaviour.
"[There is] open drinking and drug taking [and] aggressive begging during daylight hours."
'Hugely detrimental'
Cllr O'Callaghan said he sees problems every day.
"I have an office in the city centre and I see it every day," he said.
"The behaviour that's happening on the streets every day is having a hugely detrimental effect on city centre businesses and our local tourist industry.
"People who are just going about their daily business, shopping and working in the city".
Cllr O'Callaghan said such behaviour is not tolerated elsewhere.
"If you go to other European cities, you don't see this sort of carry on happening at all," he said.
"If it's not tolerated there, it shouldn't be tolerated in Cork or in any other city or town in Ireland.
"Dublin is probably arguably worse than Cork - so in my view it simply cannot be allowed to continue and decisive action needs to be taken."
'Criminal gangs'
Cllr O'Callaghan said while the Gardaí "do a fantastic job", his "heart goes out to them".
"What they do is they arrest a lot of these individuals, take them before the courts and then - because it's a maximum [sentence] of one month for aggressive begging in reality that's no prison sentence," he said.
Cllr O'Callaghan said there are often organised criminal gangs involved.
"As far as I'm concerned [aggressive begging] is [when] you're trying to go about your daily business and someone is harassing you," he said.
"They're coming upon you saying, 'Please give me something' - you say no then they follow you all over the place.
"A lot of it is actually being perpetrated, the Gardaí would tell you, by organised criminal gangs - which is why there is a separate offence for directing begging.
"The problem at the moment is there's no consequences.
"The Gardaí round them up, bring them before the courts and because the sentences are so low, they're back out in the streets again the following day."
Cllr O'Callaghan also wants Justice Minister Helen McEntee to consider introducing mandatory minimum sentencing for public order offenses "where there's been repeated offending within a six month period."
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