Michael Moynihan: Cork is looking for some leadership in a city confronted by rising crime

The under-resourcing of gardaí in Cork tipped into the realm of the farcical when dozens of gardaí were sent to Paris to help police the Olympics

Gardaí on patrol in Cork city. Anyone who visits the city on a regular basis will have a tale of harassment or intimidation, ranging from low-level annoyance to outright confrontation.

Things must be bad when the Tánaiste is admitting that the centre of Cork city is not safe.

Last week Micheál Martin said: “Clearly people are concerned, people feel vulnerable, and ... very often statistics are thrown about in terms of number of crimes and so on, [but] it’s the perception of safety, and people at the moment are not as comfortable, particularly at night, young women in particular are not as comfortable going about the streets of Cork now, as they might have been years ago.