Begging and street drinking has been almost eradicated in a key city centre zone of Dublin as part of a major new initiative by Dublin City Council, the Garda and health services.
The initiative has targeted littering, vandalism and other anti-social behaviour in an effort to create a safer, cleaner environment in the city's main business and shopping zone.
Dublin City Council has designated a "public domain" zone from Parnell Square to St Stephen's Green.
Two public domain managers have been employed to oversee the areas, which have also been given extra resources to create a cleaner, better-kept city environment.
Last June, the Garda launched a city centre initiative with 50 extra gardaí being deployed on streets. The programme has been extended until Christmas because of the results, according to Chief Supt Al McHugh of Store Street station.
"Since June there have been 2,800 arrests across the board in the city centre," he said. This includes 70 arrests for begging.
"What also happened is that the same names kept cropping up, and usually you found that there was alcohol or drug dependence."
As a result, there has been a major reduction in begging and street drinking in the city centre zone, according to both gardaí and council officials.
However they deny the problem has been merely moved on to other areas.
An inter-agency group, involving gardaí, the council and Northern Area Health Board is now targeting the individuals, believed to number around 50 at present, on a one-to-one basis with accommodation, addiction treatment and other services.
"These are people in difficult personal circumstances," said Mr Paul Moloney, Dublin City Council's manager for the city centre, who is over the public domain project. According to Mr Moloney, there is now an adequate number of beds in Dublin hostels. A significant number of those identified were not homeless, but had other problems, such as drug addiction and mental health problems, which they were trying to address.
"It is a case of reducing their time on the streets. They like mobility and flexibility and we respect that. It's not a case of locking them up but getting them places where they can get suitable care and shelter."
City manager Mr John Fitzgerald said the programme is not the equivalent of "a zero tolerance approach".
"It's more about adopting a lower level of tolerance."
The level of services, such as sanitation and repairing footpaths, was also much higher in this area, he said. He described it as "the front parlour" of the city, with six million visitors a year, and 60,000 users every day.
"We have put a special regime in place in the city centre. You can't apply the same standards as in the rest of the city. You have to provide a five-star grade."
The clean-up of the Liffey boardwalk has been seen as a major success of the new initiative, according to Mr Joe Crosbie, public domain manager for the north inner city. Before the new programme, the three kiosks on the boardwalk had been forced to close after it became a popular spot for street drinkers.